Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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characterized as a treasure house of key texts must have gradually emerged. Thus only those texts which were judged to be more or less important or worthy of preservation must have been selected by the first compilers of the Viyahapannatti at about the time of the Second Canonical Convention. This process of filtration must have continued till the Bhagavati took shape in the present form at the Third Valabhi Convention. Also many texts must have been accidentally lost in the course of time, for instance, by the death of many monks who memorized the passages, due to famines, etc.
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It is clear from a glance at Table I and Table N that texts dealing with the same topic belonging to the first through fourth stages are placed at random in Sataka I-XX. This implies that the Viyahapannatti must have been a mere assembly of the texts as such which did not go through the process of systernatic organization at the time of its first compilation. We would also assume that the nucleus texts did not have a definite style of writing, and the uniform style of catechism between MV and Gautama came to be gradually prevalent around the time when the Bhagavati was first compiled.
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To this collection the texts composed in the fourth-fifth stages were added next. As we can see in Table IV, many texts falling in this period are of theoretical importance or of novel interest to the age. By going through the Table of Synopsis in Chapter II, it becomes clear at once that these texts falling in this age are generally placed in each udde'saka at random without having any topical relevancy to the earlier texts in the same uddesaka. Some uddes akas consist of text/s composed in the fourth-fifth stages alone. And some udde'sakas consist of text/s composed in the fourth-fifth stages and those composed in the fifth stage. It is thereby obvious that these texts belonging to the fourth-fifth stages were on the whole, randomly added to the previous collection as they were composed. These numerous passages must have then generally arranged by sound connections and assonances for mnemonic purpose.
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We should recall that the case illustrations of five kriyas were already frequently used during the third canonical stage, and this must have easily encouraged the continuation of a similar practice for other topics in subsequent ages, for instance, the case of maha and alpa of (karma-)kriya-asrava-vedana in the fourth-fifth stages. And efforts had been constantly made by the fourth-fifth canonical stages, so that the earlier contents of the Jaina dogmas could be explained and expressed more methodically on a much higher technical level. Also during the same canonical age, the five story texts including the Atimuktaka story were incorporated into the Bhagavati. Many important key texts also made their appearance during this period. Thus the aforementioned peculiar features of the Bhagavati gradually came to emerge, and became more prominent in the final stage.