Chapter on Passion

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 40

(26) : Chapters on Passions
days. It would have been repetition of what is known. It is due to this that he is designated as Vācaka (Canonical Reader-Preceptor) in texts like the Vācaka Umāsväti later. The title of 'Vācaka' is also found in Śvetāmbaras too. Further, many verses of KP are found in the text of Karma-praksti and there are many differences in opinions of SK and KP. Moreover, his name is also not found in Svetāmbara tradition. All these points have been attended to by Hindi translators, which single him out as a Digambara ācārya.
However, it seems he belonged to southern tradition and might have been unfamiliar with the scriptural corruptions in the north. Thus, he could be said to be scholar of undifferentiated textual tradition.
There is a four-fold record of ācārya tradition of postMahaviran 683 years. As they have variability (difference of 118 years and 28-37 names) with times, nothing can be said what could be taken as valid. However, there are supporters of each of these variable traditions on faith only without proper analysis.
This is quite possible for poly-viewists as every statement is relatively a partial truth. They can point out two places of birth and salvation of Mahāvīra, they may have four-fold auspicity and threefold auspicity litany, absolutist views on idealism and mixed views about it and so on. The earlier ācāryas have also expressed similar views on many issues except in few cases. All this is despite the fact that the polyviewstic theory is pregnant with conflict resolution through compromises. But it seems currently breeding absolutistic nature, which is undesirable.
The earliest one seems to be that of Mūla-sangha (Original Order) lineage containing 28 names only and described in many earlier texts. The later one is the Nandi lineage containing up to 37