History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

SR No.: 006541
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal R Kapadia, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & History
File Size: 17 MB

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THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS written in two languages, but even a Samskrta stem has Prakrta terminations at times. This indicates that the Samskrta language was slowly but surely receiving more and more attention at the hands of the Jainas who wanted to popularize their literature. Cunni is written in prose, and this is another respect in which it differs from Nijjutti and Bhāsa.
Bhāsa is styled as Gāhā, too, since it is composed in gāthās in Prākrta. This is what we learn from the Vyākhyā of Visehacunni of Nisiha (XX). There its author Śrīcandra Sūri, pupil of śīlabhadra, has made the following observation :
" TEINE TEISTOC HVP Entegral fueftra 1" Just as we have not got Nijjuttis for all the canonical texts, similarly there are not Bhāsas for every Nijjuttia – much less for every Agama. It seems that Bhāsas were composed in the case of at least the following 11 Agamas :
(1) Āvassaya, (2) Dasaveyāliya, (3) Uttarajjhayaņa, (4) Kappa, (5) Pañcakappa?, (6) Vavahāra, (7) Nisīha, (8) Pañcamangalasuyakkhandha“, (9) Jiyakappa, (10) Ohanijjutti and (11) Piņdanijjutti.
For Āvassaya, there are three Bhāsas, one of which is known as Mülabhāsa. The others are known as Bhāsa? and Visesā.° There are about 183 verses in Mülabhāsa, about 350 in Bhāsa and about 4314 in Visesão.
and the 85-999 ab, and br wher
Dhanapāla has written Virastuti of 11 verses wherein the 1st hemistich of every verse is in Samskrta and the 2nd in Prakrta as is the case with Silavatikathā occurring in Arthadipikā (pp. 856-994) and Bhimakumārakathā, a Ms. of which exists in a Jaina Bhandara in the Punjab, and Rāmacandra Sūri, too, has written Adidevastava of 8 verses in this manner whereas Haribhadra Sūri's Saṁsāra dāvanala, Ratnasekhara Sūri's Caturvirśatistavana and Bhatti's Bhattikävya (XIII) are so composed that they can be considered to be works both in Samsksta and Prāksta and can hence be looked upon as examples of bhāṣāslesa. For instance there seem to be no Bhāsas pertaining to the Nijuttis on Āyāra,
Suyagada, Sūriyapannatti, Dasāsuyakkhandha and Isibhāsiya. 3 I have included Pañcakappa in this list, as I think that it is after all a Nijjutti
on a portion of Kappa. Herein there is a reference to Kālika Sūri's going to an
Ajīvaka for studying the astānga-nimitta. 4 The Bhāsa on this is extint. See p. 85, fn. 2. 5 A Ms. of its Bhāsa is in Jesalmere. 6-7 See the edition (pp. 573 and 591) of Visesão with Gujarati translation.