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 21

Introductory essay and tools by Nalini Balbir
Jainism is evidenced by his important exploration of the narrative accounts of the schisms.2S Several of his observations take the schism between the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras as a chronological standard before or after which a text is to be ascribed (e.g., p. 1). In Übersicht portrait gallery three prominent figures stand out. Haribhadra, who appears as the major editor and commentator of the Avasyakaniryukti, is the subject of passing remarks or statements. Bhadrabāhu and Jinabhadra, however, are the topic of extensive sections of the book.
The main point concerning Bhadrabāhu is Leumann's demonstration based on the detailed discussion of the interrelations between narrative reports of both Śvetāmbara and Digambara provenance on historico-genealogical works (the pattāvalis) that there were two Bhadrabāhu.26 The one which Leumann calls "historical” (p. 65ff.) is the knower of the Pūrvas, who was responsible for the migration of the Jaina community to the South at the time of the twelve year famine.
The one which Leumann calls "fictitious” (p. 75ff.) and "only a literary name” (p. 65) is the author/compiler of the Niryukti collection which may have been composed in the first century A.D., more precisely “a few decades after” 30 A.D. (p. 76), or even more precisely “around 80 A.D.” (p. 78). Its date of composition is related to the date of the schism between the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras, corresponding to 82 CE, on the basis of the evidence considered. This discussion, which progresses step by step and slowly reduces the likely chronological interval, involves explorations about other clerical figures of the early Jaina tradition as they appear in narrative literature: Kālaka, Vajrasvāmin, Rakṣita and matters connected with the seven schisms, for which the Avaśyaka commentaries and the Uttarādhyayanasūtra commentaries (in the second chapter) are the two main sources treated by Leumann in an independent full-fledged study (1885). The contexts of some of these narrative accounts are worth nating: the spiritual careers of the religious teachers are depicted in connection with monastic hardships which are especially difficult to bear, such as nudity (ārya Rakṣita) or reduction of food (Bhadrabāhu). In the context of Avaśyaka proper, Bhadrabāhu, whoever he may be, is responsible for the “first edition” of the Niryukti (p. 80).
As for Jinabhadra, the main concern of the present book is obviously the Viśeşāvasyakabhäsya, which received a detailed treatment (from p. 84ff.). But in accordance with Leumann's method, which never sees any subject from a narrow angle, the other works of Jinabhadra are also described. The Übersicht in its present unfinished state ends with the analysis of his Kșetrasamāsa, his Samgrahaņi and his Višeşanavati (p. 150ff.), three works on cosmology.?' Only a somewhat enigmatic short paragraph is devoted to the latter text, which remains untouched by modern scholarship in India or in the West, despite the fact that it has been published. The triplet of Jinabhadra's works substantiates the discussion of the Viśeşāvasyaka-bhāsya that has formed the subject of the preceding pages of the book, for it confirms
25 "Die alten Berichte von den Schismen der Jaina", Indische Studien 1885 (see Appendix VIII for bibliographical details). 20 For a new appraisal of early evidence and new conclusions on the figure and the date of Bhadrabāhu see Dhaky 2004. The latter considers that "the Niryuktis seemingly are as late as early sixth century A.D." (p.138).
An introductory statement shows that the survey in its final form would have included the Jitakalpa and the Dhyānaśataka (p. 150). 28 Published in 1927 (along with other texts) by the Ķsabhadevaji Keśarīmalaji Svetämbara Samsthā (according to Mohan Lal Mehta & Hiralal R. Kapadia, Jain Sahitya kā Brhad Itihäs, vol. 4, Varanasi, 1968, p. 296 n. 2; pp. 291-317 in Sastrasandeśamālā, vol. 15, Surat, V.S. 2061 (= 2004).
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