Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 249

240
Amrita
padikkamāmi niņdāmi garihāmi appānam vosirāmi /
An exact parallel of this very nature is to be found in the remaining portions dealing with the other four vows, which need not be repeated here, as the first comparison is sufficient for all the purposes.
Before we note down the result of this comparison it is to be pointed out that though apparently the text of the Acārānga is in prose, there are indications in the text itself which would go to show that in its original form it was in metrical form or at least contained many metrical lines. In fact what is proved by SCHUBRING for the first śrutakandha of the book is true of the second as well, though to a less extent. We can note the following lines in the part chosen for comparison : samie sahite sayā jae Ay. II. 1.1. 14; II. 1.2.7; padisenie vă dinne vā tao tammi niyattie Ay. II. 1.5.6; sasarakkhe udaulle sasiņiddhe mattiyā ose 7 hariyāle himgulae manosilā amjane lone / geruya-vanniya-sediya-soratthiya-pitthakkusakae ya / Ay. II. 1.6.6.; sāluyam vă viräliyam Ay. II. 1.8.3; mă metam dāiyam santam datthunam sayaOé äie / Ay. II. 1.10.2; bhaddayam bhaddayam bhoccă vivannam virasam āhare / Ay. II. 1.10.3.; appe siyā bhoyanajāe bahuujjhiyadhammie / Ay. II. 1.10.4; bahuyatthiyam vă maṁsam macchaṁ vā bahukantagam / Ay. II. 1..10.5; vedejja vă vutthabalāhage tti / Ay. II. 4.1.13; taheva gamtum ujjänam pavvayani vanāni vā / rukkhā mahallā pehāe / Ay. II. 4.2.11. .
This list can be greatly extended if we make slight changes usually of pping the disjunctive particle vā or ti vā which would turn many of these prose passages into perfect metrical lines. But what is more important for our present purpose is the fact that all these metrical lines also occur in the Daśavaikälika in exactly the same form, where they are preserved in their original metrical garb. From the comparison itself we can make out the following points :
1. In most of the parallel passages the order of the words to be enumerated is the same. Cp. Nos. 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27 and nearly all the remaining passages with slight changes in them. Now it is impossible to believe that exactly the same order of the words can be kept throughout if we regard the Daśavaikālika passages to be a versification of the prose of the Ācārānga. It is more natural to suppose that the verses were re-written in prose where the order can be easily preserved.
2. It is equally striking that to read the prose passages as verses we are required to drop merely the particles like vā or ti vā which have no sense of their own, and again it appears more probable to suppose that they were added by the writer who turned the original verses into prose, than the other way.