Bibliography Of Studies Connected With Avasyaka Commentaries

Author(s): Klaus Bruhn
Publisher: Klaus Bruhn

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Bibliography of Studies Connected with the Avaśyaka-Commentaries
KLAUS BRUHN
The subject is too complex to be explained here.
Неталл сові)
Kommt Zeit, kommt Licht.
(Ernst LEUMANN)
$1. Avasyaka literature and exegetical literature $ 1.1. The problem The memory of Ernst LEUMANN is so closely connected with his unfinished Übersicht aber die Avasyaka-Literatur that a reconsideration of the intriguing Avaśyaka issue seems to be called for. This requires in its turn the survey of a much wider area within early Jaina literature, the area of the Niryukti.s (metrical, mainly arya.s; Prakrit), Bhăşya.s (metrical, almost always årya.s; Prakrit, later than the Niryukti.s), Curņi.s (prose, Sanskrit/Prakrit), and sīkā.s (prose, Sanskrit, later than the Cūrni.s). For this area we can use the general term "exegetical literature" (exegesis of Sutra.s of the Svetämbara Agama). The "exegetical literature" can, in its turn, be subdivided into a number of smaller divisions or "literatures":
Ācāra, Sūtrakrta, Bhagavati, Daśāśruta, Kalpa, Vyavahara, Nisitha,
Uttaradhyayana, Daśavaikälika, Avaśyaka, Pindaniryukti, Oghaniryukti. Each literature consists of an exegetical sequence, the last member or phase) being formed by works of the Tīkā type (works called Țikā, Vịtti etc.). The first member is as a rule a Sūtra, but there are no extant Sutra.s in the case of the closely related Ogha- and Pindaniryukti.s. However, minimal traces of an original (Ogha) Sutra have been isolated by A. METTE in her study of the Oghaniryukti; see METTE 1974, pp. 9 (with fn.29) and 133 (fn.58). Most of the relevant Sutra.s are very old, and these old Sutra.s "form a kind of nucleaus or oldest layer ... of the canon" (ALSDORF 1977: 6-7). However, vis-à-vis the later exegetical development, the canonical Sutra.s receded largely into the role of mere catalysts. The concept of literatures is derived from the title of the Übersicht (see for the same suggestion KHADABADI 1991, English Section: 32). Refer to BHATT 1997 for the Bhagavati, which is a sort of newcomer in the above list. It is easy to demonstrate in a theoretical discussion that the importance of the four generic terms, "Niryukti" etc., is limited (BRUHN 1996: 11-12). Even the broader terms added by us ("exegetical literature", twelve "literatures") may be open to criticism. But that does not mean that we can do without all these terms. They have their relative importance. A critical discussion also does not imply that we can dispense with an outline of the situation.
• The title and the idea of this bibliography have been taken from a list published several years ago by N. BALBIR (BALBIR 1990: 73-74). My $3 is an extended version of that list. --The present paper could not have been written without extensive discussions about problems of manuscriptology and Jaina literature which I have had with the late CHANDRABHAL TRIPATHI during the past decades.
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