Facets of Jaina Religiousness in Comparative Light

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

Page 55

FACETS OF JAINA RELIGIOUSNESS
namo uvaj jhāyāņam,
namo savvasāhūņam/ 2. namo bambhie liviyel/
3. namo suyassal/39 Prof. K.C. Lalwani's edition of the Bhagavati Sütra gives the following text and translation of this extended formula :
namo arahantānam/namo siddhānam ņamo āyariyānam/namo uvajjhāyānam namo loe savvasāhūņam/ ņumo bambhie livie namo suyassal "Obeisance to the Victors. Obeisance to the Liberated Souls. Obeisance to the Preceptors. Obeisance to the Teachers. Obeisance to the Monks in all Spheres. Obeisance to the Brāhmi Script.
Obeisance to the Scriptures."40 It will be noticed that in the Suttāgame we have the reading of arihantānam whereas in the other two texts the reading is arahantānam. Also noteworthy is the difference between bambhiyassa livīyassa of Suttāgame and bambie livie of the other two editions. The Hāthīgumphā Cave Inscription of Khāravela has the form arahata (arahantānam) and not arihata (arihantānam). In the above text of the formula seven members have been invoked, the Brāhmi Script and the Sūtras or Scriptures (of Jainism) being the sixth and the seventh members. This formula taken as it is, cannot be called pañcanamaskāra-mantra. But it does contain the invocation to the members of the celebrated holy pentad. We might therefore say that the sacred formula of pañca-namaskāra occurs in the Bhag.zvati Sūtra which is an important text of the Svetāmbara Jaina Canon. It is true that the famous śloka, which eulogizes the five-fold obeisance, is not found in the Bhagavati Sūtra.
The Avassa yasutta (Avaśyakasūtra) is also an early text belonging to the category of Jaina Agama. It is the second of the 'mūla-sūtras' ('Fundamental Scriptures'?). Our formula of pañca-namaskāra occurs in this Sutra also. The reading (pātha) of the formula is identical with that found in the beginning of the Șatk handāgama which is as follows :
39.
Angasuttāni (Vācanā Pramukh Ācārya Tulasiji, Sampādaka Muni Nathamalaji), vol. II, Bhagaval Viahapannatti, p. 3. Bhagavati Sūtra, edited and translated by K.C. Lalwani, Calcutta : Jain Bhavan (1974), p. l.
40.