History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

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

Page 200

THE CANONICAL EXEGETICAL LITERATURE
an Agama (and there on p. 416 he has styled this Viseśä" as vārtika). Thus his work is a super-commentary on an Agama. In this work he has neither referred to Haribhadra Süri nor to any work of his, even when he had a chance to do so on pp. 142, 237 and 876. So Anandasagara Sūri infers that either Kotyācārya must be his predecessor or his contemporary. On pp. 978-980 there is an exposition of jñāna-Naya and kriya-Naya, and it tallies with one occurring in Haribhadra Sūri's commentary (pp. 488-490) on Avassaya. This coincidence may be due to both of them borrowing from Jinabhata's commentary on Avassaya. Kotyācārya has referred to the Mulațikä of Avassaya in several places e. g. pp. 609, 674, 675, 793, 846 and 855, and this Mülatīkā appears to be none else than that of Jinabhata whom he even mentions. Kotyācārya has hardly mentioned the name of Jinabhadra Gani kṣamäśramana but has mostly referred to him by honorifics. This may be owing to his being a grand-pupil or so. For, he cannot be his direct pupil as can be inferred from the following line occurring on p. 224 :
"भाष्याननुयायि पाठान्तरमिदं... न चेदं भूयसीषु प्रतिषु दृश्यते. "
So he may be Jinabhadra's grand-pupil or so.' He is referred to as an old
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1. Prof. H. D. Velankar in his Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskṛta and Präkrita MSS. in the Library of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (vols. III-IV, p. 396; No. 1520) says "According to Hemacandra, Jinabhadra himself with Kotyäcärya had written a com. on his own Bhāṣya. But I take this to be a slip. It may be that his view is based upon the following line quoted by him in No. 1553 from the Catalogue of Mss. at Jesalmere (p. 19):"जिनभद्रगणिक्षमाश्रमणप्रारब्धा समर्थिता श्रीकोट्याचार्यवादि (हरि) गणिमहत्तरेण० "
The full quotation is given as under at the end of a Ms. of a com. on Viseśā" the Ms. which is dated as Samvat 1491 and which is noted on p. 246 of A Descriptive Catalogue of Mss. in the Jain Bhandars at Pattan :
"सूत्रकारपरमपूज्य श्रीजिनभद गणिक्षमा श्रमणप्रारब्धा समर्थिता श्रीकोट्याचार्यवादिगणिमहत्तरेण श्री विशेषावश्यकलघुवृत्तिः '
The word ft in the 1st quotation seems to be added by the late Mr. C. D. Dalal, who probably thought anfe to be a misreading for eft. If so, it is wrong. Prof. Velankar seems to have taken this quotation as coming from the pen of Hemacandra. But, from p. 17 of A Des. Cat of MSS. in the Jain Bhandars at Pattan it appears that it occurs in a MS. of Kotyäcārya's work. Whatever it may be, I am unable to accept his view unless I get a satisfactory reply to each of the following querries:
(i) Does this quotation occur in other Mss? And, if so, what are those Mss ? (ii) Who is the father of this quotation?
(iii) Does the word Samarthita convey the idea of collaboration ?
(iv) If Kotyäcārya had helped Jinabhadra Gani as suggested by Prof. Velankar, they would be contemporaries. And, in that case how can the inference drawn from the line qufa... be reconciled with this view?