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ŚVETĀMBARA CANONICAL LITERATURE
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not yet been discovered.
The Avašyakaniryukti5 is undoubtedly the most important niryukti text. A number of commentaries on it are known.316 This work refers to several later Jaina monks, including Arya Mangu of Mathurā, who has been identified by me with his namesake, mentioned in a Mathurā inscription. Since it refers to sālivāhana or Šātavāhana, we have to assume that the work was composed after the Sātavāhana period. The war between Nahapāna and Gautamiputra Sātakarņi was known to the Jaina commentators, including the author of this niryukti.17 The author of this text refers to the Nandīsūtra which attests that this particular niryukti text was written after the composition of that text. This work is referred to in the Mülācāra (6.193), an early Digambara text.
The Daśavaikälikaniryukti is a much shorter work consisting of only 371 gāthās,318 and also has a few interesting references. 519 In the Uttarādhyayananiryukt7320 there is a reference to Vāsavadattā, the famous queen of Udayana, the king of Kaušāmbi.321 The Acārānganiryukt7322 refers to the Buddhists (Sauddhodani) in one place. This text is otherwise useless for our purpose. The Sūtrakrtānganiryukt7323 refers to Nālandā and informs us that it is near Rājagrha. The Daśaśrutaskandhaniryukt7324 begins with an invocation to Bhadrabāhu, who is obviously Bhadrabāhu I. The Brhatkalpaniryuktp25 and Vyavahāraniryuktf326 do not contain much information.
We do not obtain much information from the niryukti texts simply because they are written concisely and tersely. The bhāsya commentaries, like the niryuktis, are written in verse and closely follow the style of the latter. There are altogether 10 bhāșya commentaries on the following texts: Āvašyaka, Daśavaikālika, Uttarādhyayana, Bịhatkalpa, Vyavahāra, Niśitha, Jitakalpa, Oghaniryukti, and Pindaniryukti. In a few cases, it is difficult to separate the bhāsya from the niryukti. Among the bhāsya writers, only two names are known, i.e., Jinabhadra and Sanghadāsagani. As we have already seen, Jinabhadragani, lived in Saka 531 according to a manuscript of the Višeșāvasyakabhāsya. He has further been identified with the monk Jinabhadra Vācanācārya mentioned in an image inscription from Akota (near Baroda). We have further seen that this monk was responsible for rescuing the Mahānisītha manuscript, while living in Mathurā. Among his commentaries Viseșāvaśyakabhāsya and sitakalpabhāsya are known. We further learn from the above-men
