Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

Page 45

SECTION I
THE THIRD CANONICAL STAGE
67
The Bhagavati nucleus consists largely of the texts composed in the third canonical stage. This will become evident in the last chapter. This stage is, as previously explained, created and reserved for the purpose of finding which materials constitute the Bhagavati archetype. Briefly, the Jainas entered the age of theorization at this stage, and the concept of this stage directly developed into that recorded in the texts belonging to the fourth canonical stage.
We are placing in this stage the Surya p. and Candra p. which form the earliest science texts of the Jainas. The Sthana 11.1.203 refers to the Candra p., Surya p. and Duipasagara p., and IV.1.340 to the Candra p., Surya p., Jambu dvipa p. and Dvipasagara p. The Nandi 44 counts the Surya p., Pauruşimandala and Mandalaprave'sa among the 29 Utkalika Angabahyas, and the Jambudvipa p., Dvipasagara p. and Candra p. among the 31 Kalika Angabahyas. The Surya p. and the Candra p. were thus primarily independent texts. However the text construction of the present Surya p. reveals that Chapter X ff. constitute the Candra p., and in all probability, Chapter I and X were originally the independent texts called Mandalaprave'sa and Paurușimandala in the Nandi 44 above. The present Surya p. and the Candra p. are practically identical. Therefore, under the combined designation SuryaCandra p., we are referring for their contents to the Candra p. in the Suttagame II.
The cosmographcal framework of the Jainas must have begun to be set down upon entering the third canonical stage, and an inquiry into astronomical science was indispensable for this. As comparative studies of the ancient Indian cosmographies reveal," both Jalinas and the Buddhists built their own cosmographical features after the model of the Hindus. The Jainas started to collect the then available astronomical theories and data from the Jyotisa Vedanga pertaining to the orbit, motion, position of the sun, and so on, and the waning and waxing of the moon, the conjunction of naksatras, etc., etc., which are recorded and refuted in the Surya-Candra p. in order to prove that the relevant Jaina positions were more advanced than others. This proves that the Jainas had already mastered the then available astronomical science and came out with their own views and theories by the beginning of the 3rd century A.D.
We are not going to 'summarize the contents of the Surya-Candra p. here, for their scientific technicalities do not have much relevancy to the Bhagavati contents. It is interesting, however, to notice that it informs us, for instance, that Sun light canot pierce Mt. Meru because light is of a material nature. The present Surya-Candra p. seems to be full of later additions as any other canonical texts.