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60 SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
These two verses agree here in the same way of looking at tăi, insomuch as they closely link it with the sacred Great Vows.
Reviewing the six references about tai collected from the Jaina Svetambara Siddhanta46 we may try to define tai as follows: "Such a (cautious) saint, who is under the strict observance of the five Great Vows, who has abandoned all fetters and who is standing firm in the absolutely absorbed thought (samâhi) through the medium of kevala
nina."
In all these cases tāī stands by itself not being used in a line as an epithet of Bhagavan Mahavira or of other Jina. In Suy. II. 6.20 and 24 tai also stands by itself and yet the close relation of tăi and Bhagavan Mahavira is demonstrably evident here.
In the Jaina Sanskrit texts, however, täyin is connected with Mahavira as an epithet. Theodor Zachariae, Beiträge zur Indischen Lexicographie, Berlin 1883, p. 76 quotes: Arhate Yoginäthaya Mahavīrāya Tâyine, and namah Srimad-Anantaya Vitarāgāya Tayine, from Mahendra's Commentary on Hemacandra's Anekārthasaṁgraha.
In Sri Jinasenasûri's Harivaṁsapuranam, composed in Sanskrit at about the 8th century A.D. we read the following Sloka :
Astamasyendra-justasya
Kartre Tirthasya Tayine | Candraprabha-Jinendraya
Namas Candrabha-kirtaye ||
Translation: "Veneration to Him, who is the eighth [Tirtha kara], who is favoured by Indra, who is the actor, who is the ford, who is the guardian, to Candraprabha, the Lord of the Jina, to him, whose glory is like the splendour of the moon."
Here we will not hesitate to see the meaning of "guardian or saviour" in tayin, as this meaning is well attested by the contemporary Mahāvyutpatti-lexicon, by the Sanskrit Commentators and by Hemacandrācārya's Abhidhanacintamani (12th cent. A. D.).
46 There are many more references about tai in the AMg Canon. I may refer here only to the Sloka in Dasaveyâliyasutta
VII. 67: Vibhusa-vattiyam c'eyam buddha mannanti târisam | savajja-bahulam c'eyam n'eyam täihin seviyam ||
47 Prakāśikā: Manikyacandra-Jaina granthamālā-samitiḥ, Publisher: Nathurām Premi, Hirābāg, Bambai, p. 2.
48 Var. lect. pälakaya, o. c., p. 2, noted under the line.
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