Sacred Literature of Jains

SR No.: 006969
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ganeshchandra Lalwani, Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan
Publication Year: 1999
Total Pages: 250
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 139

SACRED LITERATURE OF THE JAINS
131
names enumerated here. The antiquity of these names becomes at once apparent if we compare them with similar enumerations of kinds of writing which comprise quite different names (though they hold fast to the number 18). In the Kalpāntarvācyani we find (on Kalpas. $ 209) the following peculiar verse in reference to acquiring a knowledge of writing through the help of Jina :
Leha lihivihānam jimena bambhii dihinakareņaṁ gaņiam samkhāņań surndarii vāmeņa uvaitham||, then an enumeration of the 72 kalas, which is followed by the following statements in reference to writing, the first of the 72; lekhanaṁ lipayaḥ 18, tad yathā : haṁsalipi bhūtalipi yaksao rāk sasa Uddi Yavani Turaski Kari (?) Drāvidl Saiṁdhavi Mālavi nadi nāgari Lāțe Pärast animittalipi. (icchāsamketadirūpā gloss) Canakkt Mauladevi. A second and more modern enumeration ibid. reads :[401] deśādiviseșād anyatha và 18 : Lādi Codi Dahalı Kanhadı Güjart Sorațhi Marahashi Kaurkaņi Khurasani (!) Sasi (?) Simhalı Hädi Kiri Hammiri (!) Paratiri Māgadhi Malavi Mahāyodhi In this enumeration the introduction is of especial interest, since it calls the addha-Magahā bhāsā, the language of the bambhi livi. -See p. 221.- No weight is to be laid upon the statement, which the text evidently intends to make, that all the 18 methods of writing mentioned above were brought into use for the bambhi livi.. This passage and that of the Lalitavistara must be regarded as of paramount importance for the history of Indian writing, though these accounts contain much that can be recognized as purely fictitious.
XVII. The fifth upāngam, süriyapannatti (süryaprajñapti) bhagavati, in 20 pähudas (prābhyta) of which 1 has eight, 2 three, and 10 twentytwo subdivisions called pāhudapāhuda. This strange name pähuda is found beside here only in the puvva contained in the ditthivāa. By the use of this word a special connection between the ditthivāa and this upanga is co ipso rendered probable.745 Cf. also the direct statement in the introduction to up. 7. In discussing anga 3 I have remarked (p. 269) that its mention of a sūrapannatti designated as anga-bahira had reference to this upanga, though it could not be regarded as certain that the present form of this upānga was thereby attested for that period. If it is doubtful whether the present form of this up. existed even at the date of Nandı (402) in which the sūrapannatti also is enumerated among the anamngapavitha texts ; but there are two other texts enumera
145 In up, 6-see p. 414-a division into vatthus is ascribed, as seems probable, to our
text. The name vatrhu at least recalls the purvas.