Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 167

137
questions are posed as to drști and le'sya in the succeeding sutras 470-71. Then XII.2.472 examines the same content above as to gods in each heaven. Krsnapaksika and 'suklapakṣika are explained by Abhayadeva to mean "the length of time a little more than and a little less than the half cycle of pudgala parivartana respectively". The concepts as such obviously belong to the postPrajnapana period, and we place these passages in the fifth canonical stage.
338
X V1.4.623 attempts to express the number of H.A.M.G by the yugma method consisting of four types, i.e., krta, tryoja, dvapara and kalyoja. it explains them in the following way: by dividing the total number by four, if the remainder is 0, it is called krta yugma; if the remainder is 3, it is called tryoja yugma; if the remainder is 2, it is called dvapara yugma; and if the remainder is 1, it is called kalyoja yugma. By assuming "a" as the total number, these can be expressed by way of the following formulae: krta=a/4+0; tryoja=a/4+3; dvāpara=a/4+2; kalyoja=a/4+1. The minimum number can be expressed by krta by way of this yugma method, the maximum number by tryoja, and the medium number by kalyoja through dvapara. In consequence, the minimum number of H.A'M.G is krta, their maximum number is tryoja, and their medium number is kalyoja through dvapara; the minumum number of A' (except plants) and A2-4 is krta, their maximum number is duapara, and their medium number is kalyoja through dvapara. The number of plant-beings and siddhas is ananta each, therefore it is said inexpressible (apada) by this yugma method. The text similarly offers the number of female beings in general and in each individual class by way of the yugma method.
339
Without knowing the total number of beings in this and that class, the yugma method cannot be operated. And the number of the beings in a particular class is known in the fourth stage. Why, then, did the canonical authors have to devise such a method? They obviously wanted to express the huge number of beings in this and that class in a more simplified way. In other words, the age was demanding the Jaina theoreticians to find a method which could express them in a higher technical level. Thus was the yugma method invented, and it was in all probability suggested by the Hindu divisions of time, which were adopted by the Jainas to establish twelve divisions of the cosmic time cycle (cf. A-2). It is thus an unmistakable product of the fifth canonical stage. We should also remember thắt the number four has a significant association with the number of gati.
340
In the later Bhagavati 'satakas which we are not going to deal with, this method is developed into ksudra, maha and rasi yugmas, where maha yugma can be applied to the jivas whose number is ananta. The yugma method does not make its appearance again in the later canonical texts, and it does not seem to have survived long in the post-canonical period. An advantage of this method is that the minimum number can be expressed by "0" (i.e., krta=a/4