Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

SR No.: 011033
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1949
Total Pages: 229
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Agam, & Canon
File Size: 24 MB

Page 100

CHAPTER XVIII
NIRAYAVALI SUTRA (NIRAYAVALIYA SUYA).
The Nirayavaliya group of five upangas consists of Nirayavaliya or Kappiya, Kappavaḍimsuya, Pupphiyā, Pupphaculiyā, and Vanhidasa. These texts are separately counted to make up the number twelve of the upangas of the Svetambara canon. The Nirayavaliya or Kappiyā gives the lives of the teu sous of Srenika; the Kappavadimsaya, the lives of their ten sons; the Pupphiya, the description of ten gods. the Moon, the Sun and the like; the Pupphaculiya, that of ten goddesses, Śri, Ri and the like, while the Vanhidusā contains the legends of the twelve princes of the Vrsni race. All the five books form parts of this sūtru as a whole. The first book or Nirayāvaliyā proper dealing with the unhappy destiny of the ten half brothers of Kunika, and the second book dealing with the destiny of their ten sons, stand as two Jain literary pieces inspired by the plot of the Sanskrit Dasakumaracarita. The number ten plays its important rôle in the first four books of the Niruyacaliya group while a slight departure is made in the l'anhidasa. As compared with the literary excellence of the Dasakumaracarita the Jaina pieces seem to be hackneyed and laboured, dull and uninteresting. In the first piece king Śreņika is said to have ten queens besides Cellanā, the daughter of Ceḍaga of Videha and Vesali. The ten sons were named, Kala, Sukala, Mahakāla, Kṛṣṇa, Sukṛṣṇa, Mahakṛṣṇa, Virakṛṣṇa, Rāmakṛṣṇa, Pitrsenakrsna and Mahasenakṛṣṇa after their mothers Kāli, Sukali and the rest. The list supplied is evidently fantastic and unhistorical. The connection of king Śrenika with Rajagṛha is very vaguely suggested. His son Kūņika is invariably connected with the city of Campa, which is known as the capital of Anga in Pali literature. After the death of king Śrenika, his son Kūnika, overwhelmed with grief, left Rajagṛha for Campā. Kūnika had an uterine brother Vehalla, by name. King Srenika out of his love for Prince Vehalla gave him a Gandhahasti known by the name of Sreyanaga and a precious necklace, which were wanted by Kunika at the instance of his Queen Padmavati. Prince Vehalla sought
1 This text has been edited by Warren in Amsterdam (1879). The Jaina Agamodaya Samiti has also brought out an edition of this sutra with Candrasuri's commentary (Ahmedabad 1922). This sutra has been published in Benares (1885) in the Agamasangraha of Dhanapati Singha, cf. Z.D.M.., 34, 178ff.