Pravachansara

SR No.: 010843
Original Sutra Author: Kundkundacharya
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Manilal Revashankar Zaveri Sheth
Publication Year: 1935
Total Pages: 595
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 48 MB

Page 112

INTRODUCTION.
lying principles of Jaina and Buddhistic monachism stand by themselves, and they will have to be traced back to a body of ascetic practices in Eastern India even before Mahavira and Buddha. The S'ramanism is peculiarly Indian, and its antecedent seeds are to be sought on the Indian soil.
REMARKS ON THE SAMGHA OF MONKS.-There are indications throughout Pravacanasara that the Jaina monks used to live in groups: the head of the band was called Ganin: the text gives different formalities to be observed before the preceptor; the S'ramana-samgha. which has four classes is referred to in III, 49; in the case of certain monks admission. and upkeep of students are allowed; the monks (sādhu) are expected to give assistance to S'ramanas on certain occasions (III, 52); and a monk is asked not to mix with those of inferior merits. Our text mentions two office-bearers in the ascetic community: Pravrajyā-dāyaka, one who initiates the novices into the order of monks; and the other Niryapaka (the Sk. rendering, I think, should be niryamaka, a pilot) who brings them to the right track when they have committed faults.
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BACK-GROUND OF THE JAINA INSTITUTION OF MENDICANCY.-The institution of mendicancy is not recognised in earlier Upanisads, but only in later works like Dharmas'astras that it is described. It is not at all improbable that the ascetic institution was purely- Magadhan, rather current in Eastern India, since long time as the forerunner of Jaina and Buddhistic monachism: Dutta remarks, "It seems reasonable that the condition of religious mendicancy developed on the Indian soil, and was not introduced into the country by the early Aryan settlers whose life and society are reflected to us from the Vedic 'mantras".1 In Pravacanasara the monk is repeatedly designated as a S'ramana, the meaning of which is already discussed above. Though originally it designated a Magadhan recluse, by the time of Kundakunda it appears to have been an exclusive appellation of Jaina monks, as it is clear from the South Indian usage of that word. It is possible that Megasthenes, in referring to Sarmanes, had in view the Jaina monks; the orientalists have detected that his designation of Gymnosophists was meant for Jaina ascetics; and the word Gymnetai used by Kleitarchoss appears to be a corruption of Jaina-yati..
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5. COMMENTATORS OF PRAVACANASARA
1. Amṛtacandra and his Tattvadīpikā ̈ ́
AMRTACANDRA AND HIS WORKS.-We know nothing about the personal life of Amṛtacandra. He gives no information about himself in his works. The pras'asti printed at the end has nothing to do with
1 Early Buddhist Monachism, p. 60.
2 See p. lxxxvii above; also Dutta: Early B. Monachism pp. 41 etc.
3 Dutta: Early B. Monachism pp. 120ff
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4 For some notes on Amṛtacandra see Peterson: Reports IV, p. 1x; Jana Hitaishi Vol. ivx -
. p. 255;, some additional notes have been written by Pts. Premi and Jagadishacandra in Jaina Jagat, the actual reference to which I have mislaid.
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