Chaupannamahapurischariyam

Author(s): Shilankacharya, Amrutlal Bhojak, Dalsukh Malvania, Vasudev S Agarwal
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 29

14] SC AS A SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE UH
[$ 11old and the young freşthin (HTX 4, 346-371 ) is inissing, which should have been included in the text on IV Cla. - Parts missing in HTi but found in JCu have been treated by Hemacandra as follows. JCu on III 339: a summary of the contents of this section is given in HTr X 3, 46 f.; here it is inserted at the end of a description of Mahāvira's ascetic life which is common to HTr and JCü but appears in HTr somewhat later than in JCu. JCa on IV 1 f. : the discussion of the fourth abbigraha is missing in HT X 3,77. JCa on IV 41: the lengthy stuti recited by Sakra in praise of Mahavira is replaced in HTr by a short eulogy in general terms (HTr X 4,172-175). The text of the stuti found in JCù consists mostly of quotations from the Jinacarita. JC on IV 48: the account of the temptation by the celestial maidens as contained in H I'r X 4,257-280 does not differ in its contents from the description in JCủ; but Hemacandra's version is infinitely shorter and also different in form. As opposed to JCü Hemacandra has inserted this episode after the granting of wishes, not before.
(2) The kevalajñana and the subsequent events. This section consists mainly of typical elements and there is little agreement between HTr and JCu/HȚi. The attainment of the kevalajñana is recorded in JCQ/HTI on IV 69 and in HTr X 5,1-1. The account of JCū which is again loaded with quotations from the Jinacarita is far more detailed than the text of HTI and HTr. Here the Mahavira-biography of HȚi ends. In the following portion ( kovalamahiinā etc.; HTr X 5,5-24=JCü on V 13 ff.) both texts are fairly uniform in content and extent. This is the end of the historical Mabāvira-biography of JCū. Next comes the description of the samavasara na (its appearance, the sermon of the Tirthamkara and so on). In JCū this description has the form of a general pattern applicable to each Tirthamkara, not the form of a biographical account of an individual Tirtbamkara. The description is divided into eight dvāras (topics ). Hemacandra gives a normal historical account, but he does not present the matter in great detail because the typical elements were treated comprehensively in the Rşabha-Bharata-carita. From this point on the text of JCū has not been transcribed by E, Leumann, so that we have to compare HTr with the Niryukti itself. Here we get first an historical account of the conversion of the Ganadharas (HTr X 5,60-160 : Niryukti 591-641" ). The topics expounded to the later disciples are the same in HTr and in the Niryukti. While the Niryukti contains only the headings, we find the full story in HTr and especially in the long-winded version of Malayagiri's Vịtti. The information about the families etc. of the Ganadharas, condensed by Hemacandra into the verses X 5,49-59, is far more exhaustive in the Niryukti. It is divided into 11 dvāras and arranged in a statistical form. This account appears in the verses 642-659 of the Niryukti, i.e. later than in HTr and not in its proper context within the narration. Here the Mahavira-biography of the Avasyaka-tradition ends. Miscellaneous Mahavira-legends are however found in the later part of the Avaśyaka-commentaries, and two of them (the genesis of the canon and the consecration of the Ganadharas with celestial powder ) form part of the present section in the Mahavira-biography (HTr X 5,165-180; JCū/HTI on VIII 12). The two versions are fairly similar. Some of the events recorded in HTI X 5 seem to be without parallel in the Āvasyaka-tradition: Sakra's stuti (X 5,25-37), Mabāvira's sermon (38-48), the pravrajya of Aryacandanā (161-164), and her appointment as a ganini (181, Jinacarita 135 ). - SC differs in varying degrees from JCūHȚI and HTr throughout the account of the chadmasthavihāra and of the kevalajñāna. There are no cases where SC agrees with one of these two versions but not with the other (i.e. there are no cases of SC HTr as opposed to JCū/HȚi, or of SCI/JCu/HȚi as opposed to HTr).
4. Quoted after the edition of Malayagiri's Vrtti (Ass No. 60). 5. In order to avoid tedious repetitions, the life-stories of typical persons, i. e. of persons belonging to a common type,
were often not given in full but reduced to a statistical account. The author mentions for exemple first all the birthplaces, then all the nakşatras of the birth, and so forth (i, e. classification according to the objective definitions, not according to the persons). The actual tale, which is identical in all cases, appears only once. The later writers abolished this system and gave the full stories together with the inevitable repetitions.