Bruhat Katha kosha

SR No.: 016060
Original Sutra Author: Harishen Acharya
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 566
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 16 MB

Page 81

BRHAT-KATHAKOŚA
This large number of Arădhanā texts, early and modern, whatever may be their intrinsic value, shows the importance of the doctrines associated with Aradhană in the life of Taina monks. A detailed and comparative study of these texts would certainly give valuable results.
ii) Bhagavatī Ārādhanā The Bhagavati Arādhana' is a pretty lengthy text containing nearly 2170 (but Bombay ed., 2166) verses in Prākrit or more correctly Jaina Sauraseni. The commentaries are not in perfect agreement about the original extent. Aparăjita has some additional gathās (Nos. 151, 343, etc.) which are not admitted by Amitagati and Asādhara; while there are many găthās (Nos. 117-9, 178, 1354, 1432, 1556, 1605-7, 1639-40, 1978, 2011, 2135 etc.) which are explained by Aśādhara though he specifically mentions that they are not commented upon by Srivijaya alias Aparăjita. Thus the extent of the text is not definite, and a systematic collation of Mss. alone would bring all the facts to light. Asādhara divides the whole work into eight Aśvāsas, but it is entirely his own proposal for which there is hardly any sanction either in the basic text or in Aparājita's commentary. A careful and continuous study of the gāthās clearly reveals that the whole work has a compact form and that the contents are systematically presented.
The very nature of the subject matter, however, is such that sporadic verses may be added or omitted here and there without affecting the frame-work of contents. This work is devoted to a detailed exposition of four-fold Arādhanā which a monk must cultivate at least at the critical hour of death if not all through his life.
After introductory discourse on the Arādhanā (Nos. 1-24), the text says that there are seventeen kinds of deaths of which five would be discussed in this work and the last three alone are commendable (25-30 ): i) Bäla-maraṇa (31-53); ii) Bālābāla- (54-63); iii) Pandita- which has three varieties : a) Bhaktapratyākhyāna (64-2029), b) Ingini ( 2029-2061), and c) Prăyopagamana (2062-77); iv) Bālapandita- (2077-87); and v) Panditapandita- (2087-2159). Then there are the concluding remarks along with the Prasasti of the author (2160-70). The three varieties of the Pandita
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1 Thore are two editions: 1) Bhagavati Arādhana in the Anantakirti D. Jaina
Granthamālā, 8, Bombay San. 1989; the text is accompanied by a Hindi translation and the edition is equipped with a good introduction and an Index of gäthäs. 2) Mülārädhanã with the Sk. commentaries of Aparäjita and Asadhara, the metrical paraphrase of Amitagati and a modern Hindi translation,
Sholapur 1935. 2 My references are either to the gāthā-numbers or to the pages of the Sholapur
odition. Aparajita has elaborately described them; the details may be compared with those in the Uttaradhyayana-Niryukti which also enumerates and describes these seventeen types (p. 5 of the Ms. No. 1094 of 1887-91, from the Bhandarkar O R. I., Poona).
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