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210
THE CANONICAL, LITERATURE OF THI: JAINAS
( CHAP
of these works indicating udätte etc., nor do we find any Juina saint reciting their holy scriptures by paying attention to uduttu etc.
Versificil commentaries---A work may be either in prose or in verse. Usually the text is in prosc, and at times it is in verse. But, probably a versified cornwentary is it novelty, and the fact that we have at least two versified commentaries' on one and the same text of the canonical literature of the Juinas, is still a greater novelty. For, I do not think that in the Indian literature there is any parallel to this feature of the Juinc literature.
Synonyms -We have already noticed that yattu is one of the features of Vijjutti, and it should be 50; for, otherwise a commentary is not worth the name. A thing or a point gets correctly understood, when synonyms are suggested.3 This is one of the reasons why even in the original texts we find at times words practically having the same meaning used in one and the same sentence. Some of the Bauldhu texts may be cited as parallels. The cgulthuis of several words are referred to in Chapter VI. To this list may be added cythes of nikkheva (v. 150), sutta (v. 174), aruga (v. 187) and vili (v. 208) given in Kuppanijjutti above referred to.
Some scholars go to the length of suggesting that the egottha we come across in the Nijjuttis is a progenitor of lexicography. If so, it immensely adds to the value of the canonical literature of the Juinus. I may add that at times the synonyms are purely Desya words, and hence they are very useful for the stud languages of olden India. 1 One of them is a Nijjuli and the othor Bhusa or at times Bhüsas. 2 These occur in Sülraka's Mycchakatika (Act I, v. 18, 21, 23 ctc.). 3 Cf. "TaggaraagittiHITTUATA hufuzzri afarrziarz"
-Haribhadra's com. (p. 17") on Dasaveyciliya. 4 Cf. the following verse of Kappanijjutti:
"बंधाणुलोमा खलु मुत्तम्मि य लाघवं असम्मोहो । सत्थगुणदीवणा वि य एगट्टगुणा हवंते ।। १७३॥" .5 "सुय सुत्त गंथ सिद्धत सासणे आण वयण उवएसो। पण्णवणमागमे इय एगट्टा पज्जवा सुत्ते ॥१७४॥"
In v179 the etymology of siddhantu (scripture) is given, and in v. 181-183 4 types of a scripture are outlined. 6 Sec Haribhadra Suri's collie (p. 17) on Dustlityuliya.