Agam 01 Ang 01 Acharanga Sutra

Author(s): K R Chandra, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Prakrit Jain Vidya Vikas Fund Ahmedabad

Page 324

290
आचाराङ्ग
( 4 ) खेयण्ण ( 2 ), खेतण्ण ( 6 ), खेत्तण्ण ( 8 ) in Mahāvīra Jaina Vidyalaya Ed.
The variants of this word in the Mahāvira Jaina Vidyalaya Ed. are as follows: खित्तण्ण, खेदन्न, खेदण्ण, खेयन्त्र, खेअन
This confusing variety is not limited to forms of words only but even to sentences. For example (pp. 94-98 of the book under review) the very first sentence of the Acārānga-sūtra (which is found at the beginning of other works) is seen as follows:
(१) सुयं मे आउ ! तेणं भगवया एवमक्खायं... ācārānga-sutra *(२) सुतं मे आउसंतेणं भगवता एवमक्खांत... Sutrakrtanga sutra
Finding such a chaotic state of the sacred Agama, Dr. Chandra became "haunted" with the idea of restitution of the original texts. He published a number of papers in order to invite the attention of scholars to this linguistically anamolous state of the sacred texts.
The present book is a collection of some of his papers on this subject. In the first chapter Dr. Chandra illustrates the linguistic anamoly in the published editions of the Canon.
In the second chapter, Dr. Chandra discusses what he regards as the main features of old AMG. Common features in Pali and AMG may indicate some of the characteristics of the language of ancient Magadha and/or Kosala. We can accept case-terminations like Instr. Pl. - bhi, Dat. Sg. -aya, Loc. Sg. -ssim or the derivatives from Vedic forms as old AMG. This whole chapter deserves careful study.
Although I do not agree with the date assigned to the Pataliputra Vacanã, I accept that it was the first Vācanā. (Dr. Chandra assigns 4th Cent. B.C. vide p.67, Footnote I, according to Max Mullar's "Sheet anchor of Ancient Indian Chronology", on the basis * On fresh evidence the word-form 33
had to be bifurcated as 3
(33 as the Magadhi vocative form and the vi as indedinable for emphasis) See my article to this effect in the 'Śramaņa', Varanasi (Hindi), July-Septr, 1995, pp. 66-69 - Editor