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

Page 228

THE CANONICAL EXEGETICAL LITERATURE
I have not come across commentaries on Agamas which are written in Hindi', Kannada and such other regional languages of India. So I shall end this topic by noting that the Gujarāti commentaries were composed at best in the 13th century2 or so when Gujarat became a powerful centre of Jaina activities and when Jaina saints commenced to preach and explain their holy canon in Gujarati. Anyhow these commentaries cannot be dated earlier than the Gujarati language itself. Perhaps there must have been some commentaries in Apabhramsa, too, from which the old Gujarātī language is derived. But none seems to be available now.
Up to the time of Vajrasvamin, there were 4 anuyogas for each of the Agamas. But, since Aryarakṣita Süri specified the anuyogas for different Agamas, 3 anuyogas out of 4 for the various Agamas became extinct. Jinaprabha Süri furnishes us with a specimen where we see the application of all the 4 anuyogas. Vide Anekārtharatnamañjușă (pp. 127133). These anuyogas may be regarded as exegesis.
The English translations" (and the like) of the Agamas may not be
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Vacanika is a name for a Hindi com. usually belonging to a Digambara school which seems to designate Sutra as Kaphi
Pārsvacandra, pupil of Sädhuratna has written a Balavabodha on Ayära. One of its Mss. is dated as Samvat 1606.
It was from the 5th century of the Vikrama era that Jainas had begun to settle in Gujarat, and by the 12th or 13th century, Gujarat had become a chief centre of Jainism. This is what Muni Kalyāṇavijaya says in his introduction (pp. 11-12) to the Gujarati translation of Prabhavakacaritra.
It is v. 336 of Avassayanijjutti, and it begins with
Out of them the following may be here noted:
Ayara and Pajjosanākappa are translated (in A. D. 1884) into English with introduction, notes and an index by Prof. Jacobi, and they form vol. XXII of S. B. E. He translated in A. D. 1895 Süyagada and Uttarajjhayana on the same lines. This forms vol. XLV of S. B. E. Dr. Rudolf A. F. Hoernle translated the 7th Anga in A. D. 1888-1890 wherein he has given an Appendix entitled as "The History of Gosala Mankhaliputta briefly translated from Bhagavati, saya XV, uddesa I." And Dr. L. D. Barnett translated the 8th and the 9th Angas in A. D. 1907. Dr. Schubring translated and annotated Dasaveyaliya in A. D. 1932 and Prof. K. V. Abhyankara, too, in the same year. Mr. A. T. Upadhye has translated the 11th Anga with notes etc. in A. D. 1935. Prof. H. B. Gandhi has translated and annotated Rayapaseniya in A. D. 1938, and Prof. N. V. Vaidya has recently translated some chapters of the 6th Anga. The latter had translated Angas VIII and