History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

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

Page 234

COMPARISON AND EVALUATION
Siddhasena Gani while commenting upon it observes on p. 258: "आम्नायोऽपि परिवर्तनं उदात्तादिपरिशुद्धमनुश्रावणीयमभ्यासविशेषः . '
From this it will be clear that udatta, anudatta and svarita are associated with the canonical literature of the Jainas, too; but, strange to say that neither do we come across any Jaina Mss. of these works indicating udatta etc., nor do we find any Jaina saint reciting their holy scriptures by paying attention to udatta etc.
Versified commentaries-A work may be either in prose or in verse. Usually the text is in prose, and at times it is in verse. But, probably a versified commentary is a novelty, and the fact that we have at least two versified commentaries1 on one and the same text of the canonical literature of the Jainas, is still a greater novelty. For, I do not think that in the Indian literature there is any parallel to this feature of the Jaina literature. It may be added that just as Nijjutti is looked upon as an Agama, so is the case with the Niddesa, a section of Khuddakanikaya of the Bauddhas. This Niddesa has two divisions : Mahäniddesa and Cullaniddesa. The former is a commentary on Aṭṭhakavagga, whereas the latter on Khaggavisāṇa and on Pārāyaṇavagga, Vatthugāthā excluded.
Synonyms2--We have already noticed that egaṭṭha is one of the features of Nijjutti, and it should be so; for, otherwise a commentary is not worth the name. A thing or a point gets correctly understood, when synonyms are suggested.3 This is one of the reasons why even in the original texts we find at times words practically having the same meaning used in one and the same sentence. Some of the Bauddha texts may be cited as parallels. The egatthas of several words are referred to in Chapter VI. To this list may be added egaṭṭhas of nikkheva (v. 150), sutta (v. 174)5, anuoga (v. 187) and vihi (v. 208) given in Kappanijjutti above referred to.
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One of them is a Nijjutti and the other a Bhāsa or at times Bhāsas. These occur in Sudraka's Mṛcchakatika (Act I, v. 18, 21, 23 etc.).
Cf. “नानादेशजविनेयगणासम्मोहार्थमागमे द्रुमपर्यायशब्दान् प्रतिपादयन्नाह”
- Haribhadra's com. (p. 17b) on Dasaveyaliya. Cf. the following verse of Kappanijjutti: "बंधाणुलोमा खलु सुत्तम्मि य लाघवं असम्मोहो । सत्थगुणदीवणा वि य एगट्ठगुणा हवंतेए || १७३ ||” 'सुय सुत्त गंथ सिद्धंत सासणे आण वयण उवएसो । पण्णवणमागमे इय एगट्ठा पज्जवा सुत्ते ॥ १७४॥”
In v. 179 the etymology of siddhanta (scripture) is given, and in v. 181183 4 types of a scripture are outlined.