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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
VI. Ajitasena-vyakaranam The last manuscript edited in this volume is entitled the Ajitasena-vyākarana-nirdeśa-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra. From the colophon it appears that the present ms. was written by one Ārya Sthirabuddhi with the help of the dharmabhānaka Narendradatta.
The importance of the ms. lies in its (1) language, (ii) the form of Buddhism envisaged by its contents, and (ii) the light thrown on the whereabouts of the Arhat Nandimitra :
(i) In language and style, it bears a close resemblance to the Lalitavistara. Like this work it relates an incident or gives a prayer first in casy and correct Sanskrit and then repeats it in broken Sanskrit, called the Gāthā dialect by the late savant R. L. Mitra. The shortening of vowels, indiscriminate use of u in word-endings, disregard of grammar, contraction of words for the exigencies of metre are as frequent as we find in the gāthā portions of the Lalitavistara and other Mahāyāna works (vide, preface).
(ii) The treatise is undoubtedly a Mahāyāna-sūtra but it represents the semi-Mahāyānic form of Buddhism. The reason for this opinion will be found in the fact that the Sūtra contains only an edifying story admonishing the people to give alms to the Buddhist monks, develop faith in Buddha as the saviour of mankind, and thereby attain Buddhahood in all its glory. In the story, there is clearly an admixture of both the Hinayānic and Mahāyānic ideals. It will be seen at page 107 that the king's son who attained Arhathood was capable of visualizing all the Buddhaksetras. The conception of innumerable Buddhas presiding over their respective Buddhakşetras is foreign to the Hinayānists, while Arhathood has no place
1 Sec Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism, pp. 36-38.
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