Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 121

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Part 1 Pudgala
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The materials falling in this part are on the whole concerned with atomcomposites that are the components of pudgala, added to which are several sutras dealing with the minor aspects of pudgala. We will take them up in due order, and at the end attempt to trace the evolution and development of the theory of prade'sas which represents a peculiar feature in the Jaina scheme of pudgala.
In I.10.80, a heretical view of atomic combination and division is introduced; that two atoms cannot combine due to the lack of sneha-kaya (ie., sticky body), but three atoms can come into contact due to the presence of snehakaya, which can then be split into two, i.e., 1 1/2 each, or three, i.e., a single atom each. Against this, MV imparts the Jainą view that two atoms can be combined into one inasmuch as three atoms can be joined together, for snehakayas are present in both cases; the former can then be decomposed into two, i.e., one atom each, and the latter into two, i.e., an atom and a composite with two atoms, or into three, i.e., one atom each. The modes of this atomic combination and division are further computed in XII.4.444. This sutra forms an introduction to the following sutras 445-47 where pudgala parivartana is discussed (time cycle for a jiva in taking in and out the total matters in the universe) involving the cosmic time cycle.
The
194 The above concept of sneha-kaya as the medium of atomic combination evidently belongs to the oldest stratum in the history of atomic combination. Bhagavati 1.6.56 informs us that the subtle sneha-kayas are incessantly falling in all directions, and are then immediately destroyed. This sukṣma-sneha-kaya must mean subtle water-being. The Jaina atomists thus seem to have at first assumed that the combination of atoms is made possible by the constant presence of these subtle sneha-kayas in all directions, and that the division of composites is caused by the dying away of these sneha-kayas, or by the lack of these subtle water-bodies. I.10.80 as well as I .6.56 must belong to the early third canonical period. Pudgala parivartana involving the cosmic cycle of time. is the concept evolved in the fifth canonical stage, and therefore XII.4.444-47 belong to the final canonical stage.
195 This external medium of atomic combination and division was then improved at some time into the concept of guna consisting of snigdha-rukṣa which inherently subsists in pudgala itself. The rules of atomic combination caused by the degrees of snigdha-ruksa gusas are laid down in the gathas to the Prajnapana XII.418. (We should note in this connection that Umasvati's exposition of the rules of atomic combination offered in the T.S., which directly took its material from these gathas, differs from that of the Sat khandagama.) The combination of atom-composites is placed in the sadi visrasa bandha class, for instance, in