History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 187

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A HISTORY OF THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
From Anuogaddāra (s. 151) it can be inferred that Nijjutti is threefold: (i) Nikkheva-Nijjutti, (ii) Uvagghaya-Nijjutti and (iii) Suttapphāsiyanijutti. The 1st type deals with nikkevas, and the 2nd brings us nearer the sutta by dealing with 25 items noted in the following two verses occurring in Anuogaddāra (s. 151) :
"उद्देसे १ निद्देसे २ अ निग्गमे ३ खेत्त ४ काल ५ पुरिसे ६ य ।
कारण ७ पच्चय ८ लक्खण ९ नए १० समोआरणाणुमए ११ ॥ किं १२ कइविहं १३ कस्स १४ कहिं १५ केसु १६ कहं १७ किच्चिरं हवइ कालं १८ । कइ १९ संतरं २० अविरहियं २१ भवा २२ गरिस २३ फासण २४ निरुती २५ ॥" The 3rd type explains the sutta under consideration.
All the Nijjuttis attributed to Bhadrabāhusvāmin must have been concise and written in gāthās as can be inferred from the 8 printed ones. They were surely compiled long before the Redaction of the Jaina canonical works, and according to the Jaina tradition they belong to the fourth century B. C. If this is correct can we look upon them as the oldest metrical commentaries forming a part of the Indo-Aryan literature ? Whatever may be a reply to this question, it is certain that these Nijjuttis were later on followed by several other commentaries. Out of them the two types of commentaries known as Bhāsa and Cunni seem to be the oldest. After their composition, there came an age when the commentaries began to be freely composed in Saṁskrta, thus making the exegetical literature on the Āgamas of the Jainas of four types : (1) Nijjutti, (2) Bhāsa, (3) Cunni and (4) Tikā. I use this last word to denote Samskrta commentaries. This Nijjutti etc. are mostly in the chronological order of development. For, Cunni seems to be an intermediate stage between Bhāsa on the one hand and ?īkā on the other, on the ground that it is neither entirely in Prākrta like its predecessors Nijjutti and Bhāsa nor mostly or completely in Saṁskrta like its successor Tikā; but it is a mixture of Prākrta and Samskrta so much so that not only one and the same sentence contains portions written in two languages, but even a Samskrta stem has
1. These very verses occur in Avassayanijjutti as v. 137-138. But therein 310437 is
separately counted as it should be. 2. Dhanapala has written Vīrastuti of 11 verses wherein the 1st hemistich of every
verse is in Samskrta and the 2nd in Prākta, 45 and Rāmacandra Sūri, too, has written Ādidevastava of 8 verses in this manner whereas Haribhadra Sūri's Samsāradāvānala, Ratnasekhara Sūri's Caturvimśatistavana and Bhatti's Bhattikavya (XII) are so composed that they can be considered to be works both in Saṁskrta
and Prāksta and can hence be looked upon as examples of bhāsāślesa. 4. See page 211 of addition.