Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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147 When loka-aloka were postulated as separate entities as such, the thought must have occurred sooner or later that they cannot intrude on each other, for otherwise the distinction between the two would become meaningless. XVI.8.585 expresses this idea by saying that a deva endowed with great power standing at the end of loka cannot bend or stretch his limbs in aloka, because there is no jiva nor pudgala in aloka, and because the motion of jiva-ajiva occurs when jivas try to fetch pudgala to nourish themselves. This idea was formulated before the concept of dharma-adharma has evolved. We place this text in the third canonical stage.
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here is to demonstrate the Jaina position on the arrangment of loka-aloka in further detail; that the earth on which jiva-ajiva exist is supported by dense water, dense air, thin air and space in that order, but loka can't lie directly on the space. The nature philosophers pointed to this experiment to prove their position. The establishment of the theory and its proof as such also belong to the early stratum in the history of Jaina cosmography, and we assign this text to the early third canonical period.
It is maintained in I .6.53 that loka-aloka, jiva-ajiva, bhavasiddhikaabhavasiddhika and siddhi-asiddhi are all sasvata, and their temporal priorityposteriority is not determinable like the egg and the chicken. This is, needless to say, spoken from the standpoint of kala; and this text must have been composed when the concept of temporal priority-posteriority, which shows a likely Vaiseṣika influence, was regarded as a rather new problem. The present sutra attempts to extend the application of the same logic to the various other topics, including the astikayas listed in the appending gathas. It becomes clear in B-2 that the doctrine of pancastikayas probably evolved in the fourth canonical stage and was rounded off in the fifth stage. We assign therefore the fifth canonical stage to this text. Similarly II.1.91 argues that loka is one, that it is santa (limited) from the viewpoint of dravya, santa from the viewpoint of kṣetra, ananta (limitless) and 'sasvata from the viewpoint of kala, and ananta from the viewpoint of bhava. These well-known fourfold standpoints were established during the fourth-fifth canonical stages. This text which is a part of the Skandaka story can be placed in the fifth canonical stage (cf. C-1b).
(2) Loka(-aloka)-shape, size and regions
The Jainas improved the Hindu structure of seven continent-oceans into asankhyata continent-oceans on logical grounds. The construction of the upper and lower worlds was also adopted by the Jainas from the then Hindu cosmography. The dimensions of the cosmographic regions in the three worlds are calculated in the Jivajivabhigama and Prajnapana, and the shape of loka and its total size make their appearance in the Jambudvipa p. It thus seems that the Jaina cosmographers first drew a rough estimate of their sizes, which then For Private & Personal Use Only