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Asamkhayam
R. P. PODDAR
The fourth lesson of the Uttarajjhayana has been called Asamkhayam. The first verse of this lesson runs as follows :
asamkhayam jiviya mā pamāyae jarovanīyassa hu natthi tānam evam viyāņāhi jane pamatte kannu vihimsā ajayā gahinti
The commentaries explain asamkhayam as asamskaraṇīyam-that which cannot be improved upon. By way of further elucidation they add that 'once deranged life (jāviya) cannot be set right as a broken bow'. This explanation somehow fits into the context and agrees with the ensuing phrase 'there is no help when the old age approaches'. But Dr. Jacobi prefers to translate asamkhayam jīviya as 'life cannot be prolonged'. It settles down in perfect harmony with the subsequent idea, 'there is no help against old age (and death)—though it involves a strain upon asamskaraniyam of the commentaries. In the title Dr. Jacobi shuns this explanation and translates asamkhayam as 'impurity'.
Another inconsistency crops up in the translation of the last verse of this chapter which runs as follows :
je samkhayā tuccha parappavai te pijjadosāņugayā parajjhā eta ahanmutti dugunchamāņo kankhe gune jāva sarirabheo
Here samkhayā has been explained in the commentary of Santyacarya as: (i) those who preach and follow the cult of sheer external purifications, or (ii) those who wrote their scriptures in Sanskrit, viz., the
1 An alternative title is Pramadapramada as suggested in Santyacarya's
commentary.
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