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M. A. Dhaky & Sagarmal Jain
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Jinabhadra gani kşamāśramaņa apparently had passed away in c. A.D. 594. He had written the commentary in Sanskrit on his Vises- Ävašyaka. bhäsya which he had left unfinished before death. Also the Visesanavati and the Jitakalpabhāsya were compiled before the Vises - Avasyakabhāsya. So the plausible date of composition of the Viseș=Āvašyakabhāşya could be c. A.D. 585 or at most a few years later on average computation. This is the stock view reflected in most of the current Svetāmbara Jaina writings. The writers were under double delusion in that they mistook the Yāpaniya like the Aradhanā of Sivārya (c. 5th-6th cent. A.D,) and the Mülācāra of Vaţtakare (c. 6th-7th cent. A.D.) as of Digambara affiliation (as did most, and still do many, Digambara writers themselves despite late A.N. Upadhye as well as late Pt. Nathuram Premi's investigations). The current historical investigations on the major early schisms in the Nirgrantha Church had, therefore, gone completely astray, the conclusions reached were absolutely erroneous, and all these writings have only served to mislead both old and new generations of scholars including Western and the Japanese. For the latest, among those who took "Boţika" as “Digambara", cf. Jagadish Chandra Jain and Mohanlal Mehta, Jaina Sahitya kā Brhad Itihāsa (Hindi), Pt. 2, Varanasi 1966, p. 205. One other factor that arose their anger was Jinabhadra's defence on the āgamic position of the sequential occurrence of perception and cognition for an omniscient. The Doctrines of the Jainas, first edition, reprint, Delhi 1978, p. 50: “The Svetāmbara report (Av. nijj 418 a) on the heresy committed by Bodiya Sivabhūti in the year 609 after MV, who wanted the Jina-kappa (Jina-kalpa) to be made generally acknowledged and who himself accepted it notwithstanding the warnings of his guru. Originally, however, this was nothing to do with the Digambaras and was related to them only later". Cf. “Prastāvanā" (Gujarāti) Ayaranga-suttam (Pt. 1), Jaina-AgamaSeries Vol. 2, Sri Mahāvīra Jaina Vidyālaya, Bombay 1977, p. 49. The first of these verses gives the date of the Boţika schism at Rathavirapura and the next verse ascribes it to Botika Sivabhūti the Heretic, and reports that this heresy came into being at Rathavirapura. In the next verses figure a hint as to a dialogue between Sivabhüti and Ārya Krsna at Rathavirapura and to Kauņdinya and Kotivira, two supporters and disciples of Sivaonati.
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