Outline of Avasyaka Literature

SR No.: 006911
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ernst Leumann, George Baumann
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 256
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 176

E. Leumann, An outline of the Avaśyaka Literature
the story of ārya Vajra and āryaRakṣita that approximately puts us back to the year 30 A.D. Therefore, the Niryukti-collection could have been composed, at the earliest, a few decades after this date.
The said story of ārya Vajra and āryaRaksita forms, along with the history of the schisms belonging to it as an appendix, an essential piece of the Avaśyaka-tradition: Av.niry. VIII 41-49 Vajra, 52 f. Raksita, 56-100 the schisms. Actually, it deals there only with the fourfold division of instruction that āryaRakṣita has introduced (Av.-niry. VIII 39 f., 50 f., 54 f.), but tradition describes the story from the entire time when the renewal arose and, because one of the persons present founded the seventh schism, [289] the story of the schisms, has, therefore, also been added. The personalities belonging to the period under discussion appear in the following schema (which indicates the clerical filiation by the connecting lines and the worldly in the customary manner).
Avanti-group
Dasapura-group
Şīhagiri
Bhaddagutta
Dhanapāla ajjaSamiya Sunandā &
Dhanagiri
Tosaliputta
Vaira
Somadeva & Ruddasomā Gotthāmāhila
ajja Rakkhiya Phaggurakkhiya
Vairasena
Vinjha
DubbaliyaPüs.
GhayaPūs.
VatthaPūs.
Now as far as the above-mentioned episode is concerned, it describes how āryaRaksita convinces his father, the Brahmin Somadeva whom he has won over to the order, to endure the discomfort of nakedness (acela-parīsaha). This is found in the sixth of the ten sections into which the parts of the previously sketched complex of stories treating mainly ārya Raksita can be divided. [Av.-niry. VIII 52] 1. founding myth of Dasapura.
2. ajjaRakkhiya as Tosaliputta's pupil. 1 . VIII 53] 3. ajjaRakkhiya as Vaira-sāmi's pupil.
Vaira-sāmi's death. Vairasena.
ajjaRakkhiya's father. VIII 515) The three Pūsamitta.
The fourfold division of the instruction. VIII 514) 9. The fourth episode of the Kālaka-episode (above, p. 27°n.).
nimitriosiosoi
3. (without any names). Āv.-niry. IX 47 kath. Cp. the myth of Dandaka-forest MBh. & Rāmāy. VII 80 f. PadmaP. I (Wilson VP. III 238"). B. Re-scheduling of the holiday.
Niś.bh. kath. (cited by Maheśvara on Avaśyaka-sapt. 67). The running away of the pupil and the arrogance of Sāgara.
Utt. II 40 f. kath. Kalpabh. pedh. 240 kath. D. The advice of the god about the Nigoda-beings. Version 1. - 2. (relating to āryaRakṣita). Āv.-niry. VIII 51' kath.
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