Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 283

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA Of the remaining Upangas the third and fourth may be taken together, being more or less similar in contents and form The first of these treats in a dialogue form of the different forms and groups of animated nature, while the second treats of the different forms, conditions of life, etc., of the Jive. However, Pranapand, the fourth Upanga, differs from nearly all the other canonical texts in this, that it is attributed to an author called Ayya Sama (Arya Syama, also Syamarya), who is placed by both the Kharatara and Tapa Gaccha Pattavalis in the fourth century after Vira. The next group combines in it the fifth, sixtb and seventh Upangas of the Jainas. The Suryaprajnapti, the Jambudvipaprajnapti and the Candrap arnapti are the scientific works of the Jainas, and they treat of astronomy, legendary geography of Bharatavarsha, and of cosmography of the heavens and system of time-reckoning, respectively. Of these, Suryaprajnapti, the fifthi Upanga, needs special mention on our part. "In it," observes Dr Weber, "we find the most remarkable statements concerning the astronomy of the Jainas arranged in a systematic form of presentation. It is an open question whether Greek influence made itself felt in this rectification; at any rate we have to deal here with an indigenous style of Indian astronomy antecedent to the authoritative and prepondering influence of the Hellenes". This fact of the Suryapragnapti being a unique specimen of "an indigenous style of Indian astronomy," even prior to the days of Greek influence in the East, is believed in by other scholars also, and its importance in the light of Jaina history is self-evident. With regard to the last five Upangas they are also compiled as five sections of a single text, entitled the Niryavalisuttam. According to Weber," their enumeration as five separate texts was caused by the desire to have the number of Upangas correspond to that of the Angas." The historical importance of the eighth Upanga lies in tins, that it treats of how the ten half-brothers of Icy Weber, op at, pp 971, 879. C att, 14, 1, pp 247, 251 According to Dr Charpentier," Upanga 415 expressly stated to be the work of Aryn Syama, a patriarch who is certainly identical with that Kulaklichrya whom the tradition places in the time of Gardabhilo, tuc lower Vikramaditya "-Charpentier, op af, Int,p 27 Cf Jacobi, Z D.MG, I, pp 251 ! Yebcr, I.A, W, pp 14-16 + Cl Jacobi, SBE, Ml, Int, p . Leumaan, op al. pp 552-553 Thibau JA S.B, VR, 1880, p 108 Tor some facts of especial interest in connection 12 the Saryapranaph scend, pp 107-121, 181-206 . Wcber, op et, p23 232