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PREFACE : XXXV
However, it is not certain that the Gacchācāra Prakīrnaka is a composition by Virabhadra. Therefore, the period of composition of the Gacchācāra Prakirnaka must be sometime between the 8th to the 10" century AD.
Subject-matter -
Gacchācăra Prakirnaka has 137 verses in all. All these verses present a proper analysis of the monastic conduct of the monks and the nuns while abiding by the discipline of the monastic groups in which they stay. This analysis is as follows:
At the very outset the author starts describing the conduct in the monastic groups after bowing to Great Lord Mahāvīra whom the kings of the gods also bow to. (1)
The author then states that it is best to stay in a good monastic group as many a soul wanders in the cycle of worldly transmigration by staying in the bad monastic groups. (2)
Stating the benefits of staying in a good monastic group, the author says that any aspirants who may be afflicted by sloth and negligence can also come back on the right path by watching the others and then engage himself in severe penance etc. (346)
Analysing the characteristics of the Acārya it has been said that he is the very foundation of the monastic group, he is the one who has to tell others about the right and the wrong and thereby help them to free themselves from mundane attractions. Therefore, the Acārya's conduct must be scrutinised the first of all. (7-8)
In this work the author has called the Acārya who is wilful, wicked, violent, and fond of (comfortable) places of stay, who is careless about the preservation of waterboine creatures, who is
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