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The Sthaviravall, as it has come down to us, seems to bave been inflated by additions made after Devarddhigani, as his name figures last in the teacher-list. Thus, though much of the Sthaviravali is, no doubt, authentic, the same degree of authenticity does not attach to the whole of it. Bhadrabābu, the author of the Kalpasutra
I have spoken above of a Bhardräbahu who wrote a Niryukti on the Dašišrutaskandha. At the beginning of his work, he offers his obeisance to a more ancient Bhadrababu who was the author of the treatise he was commenting upon :
“My obeisance to Bhadrababu, of the Pracina gotra, the last of the śruta-kevalins (one who knows all fourteen Pârva-treatises), Bhadrābabu who wrote the Dasäśruta [skandha), the (Bphat) kälpa and the Vyavahärasútra."
The epithet last of the Sruta-kevalins' clearly shows that the person referred to was the renowned ancient Bhadrababu who was the disciple and successor of Yasobhadra as the seventh head of the Jain order of monks established by Mabåvira.
The little biographical details that we know of this Bhadrābahu, the author of the Daśāśrutaskandha (and hence the Kalpasūtra), are culled from comparatively late works like the Avasyaka Carni, the Byhadvytti on the Avaśyakastitra by Haribhadra, the Titthogaliyapayanna and the Parişislaparvan. These may be summarised as follows:
Bhadrābahu was born in a brahmana family at Pratis bānapura in the year 94 after Mahavira's nirwana. When he was forty-five years of age, he was initiated into the Jain order by Arya Yaśobhadra.
Hautes
( xxv
)
1. Vandami bhaddabahum painam carima sayala suyananim
suttassa karagamisim dasasu kappe ya vavahare
Dasasrutaskandha Niryukti.
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