Religion and Culture of the Jains

SR No.: 014007
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 168
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 10 MB

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RELIGION AND CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Sūdras respectively.78 These few instances picked up at "random appear to reveal that the extant Bhadrabāhusamhitä probably originated out of a Brāhmaṇical text which was later converted to a Jain one by introducing a few changes and additions such as the introductory portion associating the work with Bhadrabāhu, the concluding stanzas at the end of some chapters referring to the utility of the predictions for Jain monks and occasional references to the worship of Jina images and such other kindred elements.?' But the garb is transparent enough to reveal its original character which is quite eloquent.
Did then Bhadrabāhu not compose any work on astrology? As we have noted above, he was traditionally reputed to have been well-versed in astrology (nimittas), and it is quite possible that he may have composed some work on the subject. But if he really did so, unfortunately 'We know neither its title nor the exact nature and extent of its contents. It was probably not known as Bhadrabāhusaṁhitā, for this name is not met with in the extensive Jain literature prior to about the middle of the fourteenth century A.D. The title was obvioulsy imitated from Varāhamihira's Saṁhitā which, in addition to the name Brhat samhită, was also called Vārāhi Saṁhită after the author's name, with the motive of highlighting the alleged competition of Varāhamihira and Bhadrabāhu, which was a creation of wild imagination on the part of some Jain authors..
And just as the statement of the author of the Prabandhakośa about Bhadrabāhu writing a Saṁhitā alleged to have been christened after his own name is untrustworthy, so also must be his alleged contemporaneity and relationship with Varābamihira. Thus, the Varāhamihira-Bhadrabāhu episode narrated by Merutuiga and Rājasekharasűri does not appear to possess any historical value and as such need not be taken into account in any histrorical study. It is noteworthy in this
78 E..., XIV.22-23, 31, 58, 99-101 ; XX.2, 57; cf. XIV.57 (association of certain trees and castes) ; XXIV.18-21 (association of certain cithis and castes).
79 Cf. XIII.76 ; Pariśişt-ādbyāya, verses 30, 143, 158, etc.