History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 210

THE CANONICAL EXEGETICAL LITERATURE
193
This shows that nikkheva', egaṭṭha2 and nirutta3 are the main constitutents of Nijjutti.
From Anuogaddāra (s. 151) it can be inferred that Nijjutti is threefold: (i) Nikkheva-nijjutti, (ii) Uvagghāya-nijjutti and (iii) Suttapphāsiyanijjutti. The 1st type deals with nikkhevas, 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 निसे २ अ निग्गमे ३ खेत्त ४ काल ५ पुरिसे ६ य । कारण ७ पच्चय ८ लक्खण ९ नए १० समोआरणाणुम ११ ॥
किं १२ कइविहं १३ कस्स १४ कहिं १५ केसु १६ कहं १७ किंच्चिरं हवइ कालं १८ ।
कइ १९ संतरं २० अविरहियं २१ भवा २२ गरिस २३ फासण २४ निरुत्ती २५ ॥4
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 Bhasa and Cunni seem to be the oldest. After their composition, there came an age when the commentaries began to be freely composed in Samskṛta, thus making the exegetical literature on the Agamas of the Jainas of four types : (1) Nijjutti, (2) Bhāsa, (3) Cunni and (4) Tikā. I use this last word to denote Samskṛta commentaries. These Nijjutti etc. are mostly in the chronological order of development. For, Cunni seems to be an intermediate stage between Bhasa on the one hand and Tika on the other, on the ground that it is neither entirely in Prākṛta like its predecessors Nijjutti and Bhāsa nor mostly or completely in Samskṛta like its successor Tikā; but it is a mixture of Prākṛta and Samskṛta so much so that not only one and the same sentence contains portions 1-3 These are treated in Chapter VII.
4
These very verses occur in Avassayanijjutti as v. 137-138. But, therein 343 is separately counted as it should be.