Arya Bhadrabahu

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_1_002105.pdf and Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_2

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Arya Bhadrabāhu
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Kālagananā, Hindi. At the moment it is not handy.) For the date of the nirvana of Jina Mahāvīra, I have followed Jacobi's determination, namely B.C. 477. According to the tradition recorded in Dharmasāgara's autocommentary on his Pattāvali (late 16th-early 17th cent.), the Paryusanā-kalpa was first recited in the assembly of Dhruvasena (I) of the Maitraka dynasty at Anandapura (Vadanagar) in north Gujarat. Hence Jacobi's determination appears valid; for the Maitraka prince named Dhruvasena (1) did flourish in early sixth century A.D. Seemingly, Dharmasāgara had before him some old traditional record. For no one before him mentions the name of this king, which was known only through the copper plate charters of the Maitraka donor rulers that were discovered,
deciphered, and studied in the last century. 5. These dates are suggested here on the basis of a reasonable guess, based on computa
tions and synchronisms, the details regarding which I shall not dwell upon here. For these are being discussed in a separate paper, "The Paryusana-kalpa sthavi
rāvalī—eka Adhyayana" (Gujarātī), still incomplete, to be published in future. 6. Arya Phalguinitra apparently was contemporary of Ārya Raksita, the latter pontiff
reported in later literature as the one who classified the śruta/canon into four anuyoga-categories, namely the Dharmakathānuyoga, the Caranakaranānuyoga, the Ganitānuyoga, and the Dravyānuyoga. Since the term anuyoga is synonymous also with vācanā or redaction, a hitherto unreported synod may be suspected in this notice. It may also be added that the available agamas are not categorically arranged into fouranuyogas or classes stipulated in the above-noted later tradition. Hence, the term anuyoga, in the above-noted context, may be understood more accurately as vacană rather than categories of canonical literature. Phaigumitra, for certain, figures in the main line of succession and Rakṣita, who otherwise may have played a key rôle at the Synod, apparently had belonged to a collateral branch (avántara sākha): Hence the name of Arya Raksita (who otherwise was of considerable eminence) does not, but his much less famous contemporary Arya Phalgumitra's does figure at the point where the Third Phase of the Sthavīrăvali terminates. Seemingly, each one of the Sthavirāvali's five Phases ended soon after a redaction of the agamas took place. Thus, each time it had to be extended after the happening of a redaction. If a redaction of the agamas did happen in Phalgumitra's time, the place where the elders met for that purpose is not recorded in the available literature. (No redaction had been undertaken after the Valabhi Synod II inc. A.D. 503/516.)
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