Caurasi Bol

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

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The second author is Upādhyāya Meghavijaya (c. 1653-1704), a Shvetāmbara muni of the Tapāgaccha, and a contemporary of Upādhyāya Yashovijaya. The title of his work is Yukti-prabodha-nataka which seems to be a response in kind to the Samayasāra-nātaka of Banarasidas. In this work Meghavijaya openly calls Banarasidas an apostate from the Shvetämbara orthodoxy and strives to refute a great many doctrinal points characteristic of the Digambara tradition. Prominent among them are of course the two, namely whether a Kevalin does or does not partake of morsel food (kavalāhara), and whether a woman, that is a nun, is capable of practicing the mendicant vows (mahā-vratas) to perfection and attain moksha in this very life. Closely attached to these two primary disputes are the problems concerning the definition of parigraha, that is whether a mendicant's clothes and begging bowls constitute possessions, or not. Meghavijaya quotes from a great many Digambara works, notably the works of Kundakunda, including the Prābhrta texts, Gommatasāra of Nemicandra and the Mahāpurāna of Jinasena. Towards the end of this (220 shāstrākāra pages) work he mentions Hemarāja by name and refutes more or less all the major points of the Sitapata Caurāsi Bol. This work was published by Rishabhadeva Kesharimal Shvetambara Samstha, Ratlam 1928.
नव्याशाम्बरा वाराणसीयाः श्वेताम्बरगीतार्थेभ्यो व्याख्यानं श्रृण्वन्तोऽन्यजनस्य तच्छासनश्रद्धाविभंगाय चतुरशीतिं जल्पान्...
Ush तन्निबन्धोऽपि कवित्वरीत्या हेमराजपण्डितेन निबद्धः । (p. 172 ff., published by Rishabhadeva Kesharimal
Shvetambara Samstha, Ratlam, 1928.)
Both these works appear not to have come to the attention of Professeor Hiralal Kapadia and hence deserve a close study in order to understand the dynamics created by the movement known as Ādhyātmika-shailī.
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