Agam 15 Upang 04 Pragnapana Sutra Part 02

Author(s): Shyamacharya, Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 432

... [403]...
While discussing the veil (ävaraņa) of karma Satkhandagama explains avadhijñāna. And there we find the exposition of its divisions and shapes (Book XIII, pp. 289-328). This Satkhandāgama account possibly belongs to the period of time succeeding the one to which the exposition of avadhi contained in Āvaśyakaniryukti belongs. This is so because Avaśyakaniryukti gives an example of panaka while explaining the minimum spatial limit of avadhijñāna whereas Şatkhandāgama gives an example of sūksma nigoda while explaining the same. Moreover, the gāthās from Āvaśyakaniryukti are found in Satkhandāgama which calls them gāthasūtras. These gathas yield different readings. This suggests that both Āvaśyakaniryukti and Satkhandāgama might have borrowed these găthās from some old niryukti.
From among the Jaina Āgamas the old ones like Ācārāngasūtra do not contain the discussion about Avadhi. But the discussions about avadhi started as soon as the works of didactic stories like Upāsakadašā came to be included in the class of Anga works. And from those discussions we come to know that even Indrabhūti himself entertained doubt regarding the range of avadhijñāna acquired by a layman. This is really a very remarkable event narrated in those discussions (Uvāsagadasāo, Hornle, p. 184).
While summarising the Pannavaņā account of karma we have already noted that in the account the avaranas (veils) of senseorgans and of the cognitions due to them alone are enumerated whereas those of avadhi, etc. are conspicuous by their absence. This shows that the speculation about avadhijñāna, etc. might have later on gradually crept in the Āgamas.
There are two main types of avadhi-jñāna, viz. innate avadhi and acquired avadhi. Infernal beings and celestial beings possess innate avadhi whereas sub-human beings and human beings can possibly possess acquired avadhi (1982).
The summary of Pannavana exposition of avadhijñāna is as follows. The minimum spatial range of avadhi possessed by infernal beings is į gār whereas the maximum spatial range of the same possessed by them is 4 gāus. Then all the seven hells are taken up one by one and we are told about the maximum and minimum spatial ranges of avadhi possessed by living beings of this or that hell. The spatial range of avadhi possessed by a living being decreases as it moves downward from the 1st to the 7th hell
5. Avaśyakaniryukti 29; Višeşāvaśyaka 585; Şafkhandāgama, Book XIII, p. 301) 6. Many gāthas from Āvaśyakaniryukti (gāthas 31 ff) are found in Satkhanda
gama. See an appendix 'Gathasūtrāņi' (p. 11) given at the end of Book XIII.