Mahavira and his Teaching

SR No.: 008019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 509
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Biography, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 12 MB

Page 50

ON SOME NONCANONICAL SUBHĀȘITA
edition, used also by M. V. Patwardhan, it contains 795 verses (gātha-s), to which M. V. Patwardhan's edition added from MS.C. 196 verses. As was usual for all subhāṣita-samgraha-s, the verses were divided into chapters, called in Vaj. vajjā-s (Skt. vrajya-s), 95 in number. The verses included in this anthology were composed by different poets, as stated in verse 3; they were assembled according to the three puruşārtha-s, as stated in verse 4, i. e. dharma, artha and kāma. However none of the verses was ascribed to any individual author, though its prototype, Hāla's Sattasaī, contained ascriptions to different poets. 3.2. The Vaj. was influenced by Hāla's Sattasaī and was written in Jaina Mahārāstrī.2 We find 82 verses identical (though not always word for word) in the Vaj. and Hāla's Sattasaíl. Hāla's work was well known to Jayavallabha and he quotes Hāla in verse 468. 3.3. When the Vaj. was composed is not known, but it must have been composed after Hāla's Sattasaī, but not much later. 4 3.4. The Vaj. is considered to be a Jaina anthology of verses. However, it is not so. Only its author was a Jaina and in verse one he paid homage to Suyadevī and to the Omniscient one (the Jina). In addition, Jayavallabha did not cull the verses included in the Vaj. from Jaina authors, nor did he intend to teach Jaina doctrines; therefore the whole work has seldom a Jaina characters; it is neither in tone nor in its contents Jinistic. Almost all verses included in Vaj. could very well fit non-Jaina subhāṣita-sangraha-s. 1. 63 verses deal with dharma, 347 with artha and 342 with kāma. 2. Cf. J. LABER, Ueber die ... (op. cit. p. 42, fn. 2); pp. 9 sqq for signs
of Apabhraíśa forms see J. LABER, p. 27. 3 M. V. PARWARDIIAN in the Introduction to the Vajjālaggam, p xxvii
The date a quo is AD. 750, 1.e. the date of the Gaudavaho which quotes a verse of Jayavallabha and the date ad quem is the dated Ratnadeva's commentary (para 3.1). Jaina in character are only very few verses, e.g. verse 572. Verse 668, whcih resembles for instance Amitagati's Subhāşıtaratnasaņdoha (24.15) could have been also included in non-Jinistic subhåsıta-samgraha-s.