Agam 05 Ang 05 Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra Part 03

Author(s): Bechardas Doshi, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

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INTRODUCTION
sūtracurṇi by an anonymous writer. 2. the Bhagavatisūtravṛtti by Ac. Abhayadevasūri.. The Curni is hetherto unpublished. It mentions neither its author nor the date of its composition. The Curnis represent old tradition of interpretation and explanation of the Agamas and contain varied data. But after the composition of Sanskrit commentaries on the Agamas, teaching or learning of the Curnis declined and with the passage of centuries it was completely neglected. On this account though the manuscript copies continued to be prepared, these copies gradually became more and more corrupt because copyists were either ignorant of or had very meagre knowledge of the subject-matter and language of the Curnis. Of course, there may be some rare exceptions to this generalization. Again, their explanation being not extensive like those contained in the Sanskrit commentaries but on the contrary pithy and cryptic those who are not acquainted with this type of exposition will find very difficult even to grasp the construction of a sentence. The manuscripts of the Bhagavatisūtracurni are fraught with corruptions. Moreover, the extent of the text of the Bhagavatisūtra is 15600 anuṣṭup slokas while that of the text of the Curni is 3100 anustup slokas only. Thus the scope of the Curni is very limited. The Curni intends to interpret or explain only those sutras or portions of the sutras or terms of sutras which were considered tough by its author. To edit it critically is not quite an impossible task, but it requires unabating perseverence, much time and energy. This is the reason why this work is not paid heed to. Many Curnis have been published so far. But the texts of these published Curnis need reediting and reprinting. This is my humble opinion.
Ac. Abhayadevasuri composed the Bhagavatisūtravṛtti in 1128 V.S. In 1918-1919 A.D. Ac. Sāgarānandasūriji edited this commentary and got it published by Agamodaya Samiti, Surat. In this Vṛtti quotations from the Curni are given with the explicit mention of the Curni or the Curnikāra. This clearly proves that in the composition of the Vṛtti Ac. Abhayadevasŭri has utilised the Curni. Moreover, we find several quotations in the Vṛtti, with the mention of their author as 'vṛttikṛt' or tikākṛt'. But the text of these quotations is not available in the Curni. From this one may infer that they must be from some old commentary which is not extant. Again, Abhayadevasuri in his Vrtti records the views representing old tradition of interpretation and explanation with the remarks 'iti vṛddhaḥ' 'iti vṛddhavyakhya' 'eke' 'anye' and 'apare'. This points to an oral tradition of interpretation of certain Padas of the
4 Though the Jaind-Granthavali and following it the Jinaratnakosa notes that the author of this Curni is Jinadāsagani Mahattara, the Curni does not yield any corroborative evidence in favour of this information.