Caurasi Bol

Author(s): Padmanabh S Jaini
Publisher: Siddhantacharya Pt Fulchandra Shastri Foundation Roorkee

Page 12

und Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women." But the remaining issues are not less important and call for scholarly attention. Professor Kapadiya in his article takes note of some twentyseven major topics and puts together a longer list from the headings that appear in Upādhyāya Yashovijaya's "Pratyukti" published in the Gūrjaru Sāhitya Sangraha.*
Hemaraj Pande's work contains eighty-four (caurāsī) points (bol) presented in a composition of ninety-one verses in varieties of Hindi meters. The number eighty-four seems to have been deliberately chosen by him to match with the eighty-four hundred thousand varieties of yonis into which a jīva may repeatedly be reborn in the course of samsāra (see verse no. 88). He is suggesting thereby that those who hold these views may not escape samsāra. In the absence of any prior Digambara work on this topic, we might assume that he himself drew up this list and composed his verses accordingly.
Upādhyāya Yashovijaya's refutation has one hundred sixty-one verses and yet his response seems to be limited to only some fifty-one topics. I list here in serial order the eighty-four points attributed by Hemaraj to the Shvetāmbaras. The Shvetāmbara refutation does not follow the same order of items nor does it address all the points and hence is given in a separate list.
A brief outline of the eighty-four disputed views (vādas) attributed to the Shvetāmbaras by the Digambara shrāvaka Hemaraj Pande (numbers refer to the verses):
Introductory verses with a brief account of the beginning of the Shvetāmbara sect during the time of Ācārya Bhadrabahu. (1-18)
The kevalin partakes of food by morsel (kavala-āhāru). (19-24)
The kevalin needs to answer the calls of nature (nihāra). (25-27)
The kevalin is subject to the suffering of disease (roga). (28)
The kevalin may suffer attacks (upasarga), such as that which happened to Mahāvīra at the hands of Goshala. (29