Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

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BņHAT-KATHĀKOŠA the Avaśyaka-cūrpt vnd Haribhadra's Tīkā. Besides consistently giving a complete account of the stories already referred to in the canonical texts, the commentators like Haribhadra, Silāöka, Sāntyācārya, Devendra, Malayagiri and Abhayadeva have not only drawn upon earlier commentaries but also on extraneous literature with the result that their commentaries have become repositaries of Jaina tales of varied length and various interests. In this context mention may be made of Uvaesamālā, a poem in 540 Prākrit verses, attributed to Dharmadāsa who is claimed to be a contemporary of Mahāvīra. Critical scholars are not ready to assign such an antiquity to this text. Apart from the didactic remarks in pithy and concise expression, this work is a rich mine of legendary references many of which are already met with in the Païņņas. It is often quoted and has been subjected to good many commentaries since gth century A. D. as far as we know. The work looks like a compilation, and the basic verses may go back to an earlier stratum of Jaina literature corresponding to Nijjuttis and Païņņas.
The Digambaras have not accepted the present Ardhamāgadhi canon to be authoritative for them. Though the early canon is lost, the Digambara tradition has preserved the lists of canonical texts with their sub-divisions, if any, and contents. It is interesting to compare them with those given in the Nandisutra and with the classification of the Ardhamāgadhi canon as it is current today. The absence of the Upānga division both in the Nandisūtra enumeration and the Digambara classification and certain
common details indicate the genuineness of the Digambara tradition which A is earlier than the Valabhi Council. According to the Digambara tradition,
Tñātrdharmakathā or Nāyādham makahão narrates various Akhyānas and Upākhyānas; Antayada describes Nami, Rāmaputra etc.; and Anuttaropa. pädikadaśa or Aņuttaradasā, contains narratives about Rşidāsa, Dhanya, Sunaksatra, Kārtika, Nanda, Nandana, Sālibhadra, Abhaya, Vārişeņa, Cilāta. putra etc. Stories about some of them are available in the present Ardha. māgadhi canon, but in the absence of early texts it is not possible to say what the Digambara stories were like. Perhaps the only available fragments of the Digambara canon lie at the basis of those three big commentaries which, in their final shape, are known by the names Dhavala, Jayadhavalā and Mahadhavala. The portions, so far published, are comparatively small, and the context being purely technical, one is not in a position to have any idea of the Kathānakas, if found at all, in these works. Some of the
1 Daśavaikälika-sūtra and -niryukti ZDMG, 46, Leipzig 1892; Die Avaśyaka
Erzählungen, Leipzig 1897. 2 See Prākrit Srutabhakti; Pūjyapāda's Sarvārthasiddhi on the Tattvārthasūtra
I. 20, and Akalanka's Rājavārtika on the same; Satkhaņdāgama with Dhavalā (Amraoti 1939) vol. I, pp. 96 etc.; Gommațasāra, Jivakāņda (Bombay 1916)
pp. 134 eto. 3 Prof. Hiralal has fully compared the details about the Drstivāda available in the
Digambara and Svetām bara texts in his Introduction, pp. 41-68, to Dhavalā, vol. II (Amraoti 1940).