Agam 02 Ang 02 Sutrakrutang Sutra Part 02 Sthanakvasi

Author(s): Sudharmaswami, Hemchandraji Maharaj, Amarmuni, Nemichandramuni
Publisher: Atmagyan Pith

Page 22

FOREWORD
The Suyagada, a text in Prakrit language has been assigned a second place-after the Ayāra-in the anga (primary) literature of the Svetambara Jaina canon. The first of its two divisions into suyakkhandhas consists of many sub-divisions, some of them composed in anuṣṭubh while some in other meters such as vaitālīya, triṣṭubh, etc. Yet, at this stage, we can hardly trace from the corpus of the Suyagada I (except I. 4) any arya meter which is a later development from the anuṣṭubh. Apart from some other elements concerning its teaching, language, style, etc., the Suyagaḍa I on the basis of employment of such meters as stated above can without any doubt be credited as one of the earliest Prakrit texts of the Jainas. Its second suyakkhandha (ie., Suyagaḍa II) which is partly in prose and partly in verses, however, carries by no means less importance in Jainism, even if it reflects a later stage of development in many respects. The Suyagada along with other senior texts in the Svetambara canon precedes even the early literature of the Digambaraş.
Sūtrakṛta a popular sanskritization of the Prakrit title Sūyagaḍa seems hardly to be correct according to philology,since, "sutra" in Sanskrit is "sutta" in Prakrit, but "suya" in Prakrit can be "śruta" or "sūcī" in Sanskrit. In Prakrit, "y" and "i" are often interchanged (cp. "vai" or "vaya" for Sanskrit "vacas"=speech; so, "sui" or "suya" for Sanskrit "sūcī" -indication). Schubring (Doctrine. § 45.2) has rendered "suya"/ "sui" (Prakrit) into "sūcī" (Sanskrit)="dṛṣṭi", and substantiated his view on the basis of Samavaya 212 (Suttagame edition pp. 362-63) in which the verb "suijjanti" is used in the context of Suyagaḍa, e. g., in the context of Thaṇa, the verb "thavijjanti" (ibid. 213, p. 363); in the context of Viyahapaṇṇatti, the verb "viähijjanti" (ibid. 215, p. 364).
This interpretation of the term "suya" (indication of various views) in the title Suyagada is well reflected in the Suyagaḍanijjutti (edition: Sūtrakṛtānga with Niryukti and Silanka's commentary, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1978), which is the