History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

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

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THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
About the date of the Samskrta commentaries pertaining to Jaina canonical literature, it may be safely asserted that they had been composed even before the time of Haribhadra Sūri. If we do not confine ourselves to this Agamika literature, we can very well point out Vācakavarya Umāsvāti's Bhasya on his excellent work Tattvārtha as the oldest Jaina Samskrta com., that has come to our hands. Besides, this Bhāsya stands first amongst the Jaina Saṁskrta svopajña commentaries available at present. Several Jaina authors have written svopajña commentaries to their works written in Präkrta and Samskrta, and so far as the Agamas are concerned only two names viz. those of Bhadrabāhusvāmin and Jinabhadra Gani Ksamāśramana may be mentioned.
The exegetical literature of the Agamas is not only in Samskrta and Prāksta; for, it is in Gujarātī, too. The Gujarātī commentaries are given different names such as (1) Tabo, (2) Bālāvabodha, (3) Aksarārtha, (4) Vārtika, (5) Bhāsā-tīkā etc. The words Tabbo, Taba", Tabu", Tabanka and Tabārtha are also used for Tabo, and the last has Stabakārtha for its Saṁskṛta equivalent. It means a small commentary. Words such as Bālāvabodha need no explanation. There are Gujarati commentaries for several Agamas. For instance we have Țabos for Angas III, X and XI, Jambuddīvapaņņatti, Nirayāvalisuyakkhandha, Mahānisīha, Vavahāra, Kappa, Uttarajjhayana, Sadāvassaya, Caüsarana and Aurapaccakkhāna, Bālāvabodhas for Angas I, III and VI, Uttarajjhayana, Sadāvassaya, Santhāraga and Nandi, Aksarārtha for Aurapaccakkhāna and Vārtika for Ayāra and Aņuogaddarā.? 1. (1) Candrarsi Mahattara, (2) Haribhadra Sūri, (3) the celebrated polygrapher
Hemacandra Sūri, (4) Munisundara Sūri, the sahasrāvadhānin and (5) Nyāyaviśārada Nyāyācārya Yaśovijaya Gani may be cited as the Svetāmbara authors,
and Akalanka and Vidyānandin as Digambara ones. 2. In the Catalogue of Mss. of the Līmbdi Bhandāra, the word Stabbaka is used in
this sense. See pp. 2, 5, etc. 3. This is the designation used by H. T. Colebrooke. See Prof. A. B. Keith's
Descriptive Catalogue of the Mss. in the Library of the India Office (p. 1257). 4. See DCGCM (vol. XVII, pt. I, p. 186). 5. This word occurs in the Ms. (702 с of 1899-1915, B. O. R. I) of śāntisāgara's
Țabo of Bandhasāmitta. 6. See DCGCM (vol. XVII, pt. I, p. 230). 7. For description of the corresponding Mss. see D C G C M (vol. XVII, pts. I-III).
and Akalarla
yayacārya Yaśovijaya Gani putthe sahasrāvadhôniboygrapher