Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

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46
Pravacanasura
gāthās, but sometimes Jayasena preserves important and independent variants.; the majority are gathas there being only 4 anustubh verses in the 9th section. Amṛtacandra divides the whole text into 9 Ankas with a purva-ranga at the beginning and a parisista at the end; this devision, though not sanctioned by the author, is helpful to grasp the contents of this, the biggest work of Kundakunda.
THE DESIGNATION NATAKA DISCUSSED:-Though it has been usual to call Pañcâstikaya, Pravacanasära and Samayasara as Nataka-trayi, it is, in fact, Samayasăra alone, whose contents refer to the drama of samsara in which Jive and Ajiva are the dramatis personae playing the rôle of asrava etc., that is fit to be called a nāṭaka. It is from this that all the three works which constituted the Prabhṛtatrayi came to be called nāṭakas. Amṛtacandra appears to be the first to give this designation to Samayasara,1 and he wanted to make it more appropriate by various indications scattered all over his commentary: the introductory section is called Pārva-ranga; the work is [p. 49] divided into Añkas or acts; dramatic terms like nişkrāntaḥ, pravišati etc. are used at the end and beginning of different chapters from the end of the 2nd chapter; and he uses, here and there, other terms quite usual in Sanskrit dramas. Jayasena, too, adopts these terms, but he calls the chapters as Adhikaras.
4. PRAVACANASARA OF KUNDAKUNDA
a) Study of Pravacanasara
PRAVACANASARA IN ORIENTAL STUDIES:-Pavayaṇasara or Pravacanasara of Kundakunda is a pretty popular work in Jaina circles, and copies of it would be found almost in every Digambara collection; but it is very lately, especially because the Digambaras were too reluctant to open their stores of books for others, that the MSS. of it fell into the hands of orientalists. Bühler knew its name as a sacred work belonging to the dravyänuyoga group of the Digambara literature. K. B. Pathak too referred to it as a work of Kundakunda1. It was the late Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar, that all-round brilliant and stationary Dhruva star in the firmament of oriental learning, who, in his monumental report for 1883-4, gave some excerpts from Pravacanasära, and gave also the analysis of it incorporating a translation too of a few gathās; in conclusion he compared some of the Jaina tenets with those of Samkhya, Vedanta and Buddhism, and attempted a chronological
1 It is interesting to note that Amṛtacandra, with Samayasara against his name, finds a place, as a play-wright, in M, Schuyler's Bibliography of the Snaskrit Drama, p. 24.
2 I am very thankful to Prof. H. D. Velankar, Wilson College, Bombay, from whom I learn that there are 8 MSS. of Pravacanasara at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1 at Arrah, 2 at Muḍabidri, 3 at Sarasvati Bhavana Bombay (2 of which are used for the present edition), 1 at Bhuleśvara Jaina Mandira, Bombay, and 6 at Terapanthi Baḍa Mandira, Jaipura. Besides, MSS. of this work are available in Karanja collections (See Catalogue of Sk. and Pk. MSS. in C. P. and Berar 1926) and also in local Mathas of Kolhapur and Belgola.
3 I. A., Vol. VII, pp. 28-9.
4 I. A., Vol. XIV, pp. 14-26; there is no work named Prabhṛtasära though Pathak mentions it along with Pravacanasara.