Akhyanakmanikosha

Author(s): Nemichandrasuri, Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Vasudev S Agarwal
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 56

Introduction
The Akhyanakamanikosa (the treasure-house of jewels of stories ) was composed by Sri Nemicandrasūri between c. 1129-1139 V. S. (i. e., c. 1073-1083 A. D.). He was the author of the Sukhabodhavytti on the Uttarădhyayanasūtra, the Prāksta Rainacaďakatha and the Prakrta Mahāviracariam.
In V. S. 1190 (i. e., 1134 A. D.) Amradevasûri, pupil of Jinacandrasuri of Bhadgacchha completed his Vrtti on the above work, in the city Dhavalakka-pura, i. e., modern Dholkā in Gujarat. The present work contains both the original text and its commentary.
The importance of these two works can never be underestimated. The original text was composed before the birth of Hemacandräcārya. The commentator was a contemporary of Hemacandra and the famous Caulukyan ruler Siddharăja Jayasimha. It may also he remembered that the Akhyānakamaņikosa was composed within only a decade of the composition of the Dharmopadeśamäla-vivarana which, again, is an important mine of such stories, full of cultural data.
A critical and comparative study of both the above works is bound to give the reader very interesting linguistic and cultural data.
The Akhyānakamaņikośa (henceforth referred to as AMK.) is mainly devoted to Dharma-kathas and is divided into 41 adhikāras or chapters. The first adhikara describes the four types of Buddhis, namely, autpătiki, vainayiki, karmajā and pāriņāmiki, and says by way of catch-words, (e. g., BharahaNimitliya-Karisaga-Abhayāi) that, Bharata, Naimittika, Karşaka and Abhaya and others are the examples respectively of each of these four classes of intellects'. These are elaborated in the Vrtti of Amradeva (henceforth refered to as AMKV.). Bharaha, Bharata here should be taken in the sense of a Nata, an actor and a dancer. The four intellects and their illustrations are referred to in the Avaśyaka Niryukti, gātbās 937 ff. and commented upon with elaborate stories by the author of the Cũrni', and by commentators like Haribhadrasüri' and Malayagiris. The Niryukti gives only catch-words as in the AMK., while the Cürni and the Vrtti on Av. Nir. give details of stories. A comparison of the account of AMKV. and the above commentaries on Āv. Nir, shows that not only is the AMKY. account more elaborate and descriptive but it also has its own literary charm. The intellects' are also discussed with reference to stories, but in a concise form, by Jinadāsa and Haribhadra, in their Cūrņi and Vftti respectively, on the Nandisutra. It may be noted that Malayagiri does not refer to the incident of supplying oil of equal weight of .tila '-seeds referred to in vv. 48-49, p. 5, AMKV.
The story of Sreņika and Abhayakumāra is very popular in Jaina literature. Hemacandra also refers to it in his Trişaştisalākāpurusa-Caritra, parva 10. Big works like Abhayakumāracariyam by Upādhyāya Candratilaka are also composed.
The Dharmopadeśamåla-vivarana (Dh. V.) of Jayasimhasüri, composed in V. S. 915 (859 A. D.), published in Singhi Jaina Granthamälä, no. 28, may be noted. If also refers to a number of stories of the type met with in our AMKV. A comparison of the two works will show that whereas the Dh. V. gives a summary prose account of the stories, the AMKV. is a literary composition of a higher
1. Avasyaka Corni (Ratlam ed.), Vol. I. PP. 544 ff. 2. Avasyakasutra, with Niryukti of Bhadrabahu and Vitti of Haribhadra (Agamodaya Samiti ed., Bombay, 1916),
vol. II, pp. 414 ff. 3. Avaśyakasútra with Malayagiri's Vrtti (Agamodaya Samiti ed.), vol. III., pp. 516 ff. 4. Nandisutra with Malayagiri's Vitti (Agamodaya Samiti ed.), pp. 144 ff.