Facets of Jaina Religiousness in Comparative Light

Author(s): L M Joshi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 54

JAINA CONCEPTION OF THE HOLY PENTAD
kära is to be found in the Satkhandāgama, I. 1, composed by Puspadanta. Accepting Dr. Hiralal Jain's opinion, he seems to believe that the Șatkhaņdāgama may have been composed between the first and second centuries of the Christian era. Then he refers to the existence of “namo arahamtānam namo sava-siddhānam" in the Hāthīgumphā Cave Inscription of Khāravela (c. Ist cent. B.C.).34 He says : "It seems to me evident that this formula of two invocations only, is not the abbreviated form of the pamcanamokkāra but its more original and simple version.”35
In conclusion, the learned author writes as follows:
“The following line of the development of our formula seems likely to me. Originally, there existed in the centuries before Christ the sacred formula consisting of only two members, represented by the above quoted inscription. Later on, this formula was extended by the three members by Puspadanta (c. 2nd cent. A.D.). Influenced by the clause namo sava-siddhānam of the original version, he concluded his enlarged formula of five in vocations with namo loe savva-sähūņam.''36
It is somewhat surprising that no mention is made by Prof. Roth of the Bhagavati Sūtra which is certainly relevent for a study of the evolution of the namaskāra formula. It seems that Professor Roth has followed the opinion of Walther Schubring who also held that the only canonical reference to the sacred formula was to be found in the Mahānisihasutta.37 The Bhagavati Sūtra is the fifth Anga of the Svetāmbara Jaina Canon. In its three different editions, consulted by the present writer, a slightly extended version of the formula is found. The Suttāgame edition gives the following reading :
ņamo arihantāņam namo siddhāņam namo āyariyāņam ņamo uvajjhāyānam namo loe savvasähūņam//1//ņamo bambhi yassa livīyassa//2// ņamo suyassa//37/38
The Angasuttāṇi edition has a slightly variant reading which is as follows:
1. namo arahantānam,
namo siddhānam, namo āyariyānam,
34. See D.C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions, vol. I, pp. 206ff. 35. Gustav Roth, op. cit., p. 18. Incidentally, here we may note that the two members, Siddha and
Jina (Mahavira), are invoked in the first verse of the Pannavaņā sutta also, see Suttāgame, vol. II,
p. 265: Pannavaņā suttam. (Bombay edition), Part 1, Text., p. 3. 36. Gustav Roth, op. cit., p. 18. 37. Walther Schubring, The Doctrine of the Jainas, pp. 281-82, footnote 4. 38. Suttgame, vol. I, Bhagavati vivahapannatti, p. 384.