Devindatthao Devendrastava

Author(s): D S Baya
Publisher: Agam Ahimsa Samta Evam Prakrit Samsthan

Page 36

PREFACE XXXV
The style of Devendrastava is also of this type. However, there is one characteristic of this work that is at variance from the rest of the canonical works, namely the fact that the āgamic content of this work has been narrated by a lay follower of the faith (Śrā vaka) in answer to the query raised by his wife, a Śrāvika. Thus, we see that the style of this work is a combination of both the styles – the style of satisfying the curiosity of an enquirer as well as that of the eulogistic style.
Amongst the canonical works in the curiosity and satisfaction style, it is probably the only work in which the curiosity has not been expressed by Arya Jambu or Ganadhara Gautama or some other monk and it has not been satisfied by Arya Sudharma or Ganadhara Gautama or the Lord Himself. There appears to be a design behind the curiosity of a Śrāvika being satisfied by a Śrā vaka in this work. In the canonical works such as the Bhagavtīsū tra, Sürya-prajñapti, etc, the descriptions regarding the heavenly gods have been given as if delivered by the Lord Himself and the queries of Ārya Jambū have been answered by Arya Sudharma in the form as answered by the Lord on being enquired by Ganadhara Gautama. Therefore, we are left wondering as to why is it that, here, the queries have been raised by a Śrāvikā and answered by a Śrāvaka. In our view the reason fro this deviation from the established practice is that this work is a eulogistic composition and hence it would have been inappropriate to have it said by the Lord Himself, because He could not have composed an eulogy in his own praise. Also, up to a certain period down the ages the Śramaņas, who were mainly spiritually oriented didn't praise the heavenly gods and hence, the author must have thought that this eulogistic description of the heavenly gods and their kings must