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Kundakunda: The Samayasāra 233 views itself, i.e. of how it defines the samaya of which it is the essence (sāra).
ii) Samaya Perhaps the most obvious translation of samaya would be 'rule' or 'way of life', and thus the Samayasāra would be 'the essence of (our) way of life'.2 However, following Amstacandra and Jayasena, modern commentators take samaya to mean the realised or unified self. At first sight this seems puzzling. How have they arrived at this apparently idiosyncratic definition?
Without prior knowledge of the way in which the term should be understood all the internal evidence is inconclusive. An external source, however, points us in the right direction. Vātsyāyana's Nyāyabhāşya (dated by Frauwallner to the first half of the fifth century)3 defines samaya as follows:
The direct meaning of this word (samaya) is this referent: this is the application of the rule which connects the designator and the designated. When it is applied the correct understanding of the meaning is derived from the word.4
2 The underlying meaning here is 'what is mutually agreed' - so samaya would be rules for behaviour rather than doctrinal laws. In Tantra it has the standard meaning of 'the way to behave'. Caillat (1987, p. 508) translates Samayasāra as 'Essence of the Doctrine'. Friedhelm Hardy, in a personal communication, points out that, in southern India, 'religion' or 'true religion' developed as the most popular meaning of samaya. (See the Tamil Lexicon, Vol. 3, pp.12916 - 936, under 'camaya'.) I am not, however, persuaded that it should be translated in this way in all or most cases in the Samayasāra, for the reasons given in the following pages. 3 Frauwallner 1973, Pt. 2, p. 8.
asya śabdasya idam arthajātam abhidheyam ity abhidhānābhidheyaniyamaniyogah / tasminn upayukte sabdad arthasampratyayo bhavati -
Nyāyabhāsya. 2.1.55. The Nyāyakośa also gives nirdeśa - 'description', 'specification' - as a synonym for samaya.
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