History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

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

Page 277

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THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
A-line the B-line has been tagged solely on account of the word roga. 45 cannot be combined with 4a, for that would give the meaning that only during the summer did Mahāvīra took nourishment in the manner described whereas in 5a it is said that the procedure continued for eight months. Rather one must put together 3b and 4a. The former line has appeared after 3a under the influence of the same thought-process as is already found in 35, 17ff. 4b upto 5a are of the type A. Let it remain an open question whether in 6a too, where a long stretch of A, again sets in, there begins a new fragment. There need remain no contradiction when the half- or one-month long renunciation of water one refers to those eight months and the other bigger pauses to the subsequent periods. From 14a upto the end there appears another context which better rhymes with the 2nd Uddeśa; but then with the exception of the first (and second) these lines belong to A2.
In places where the different contexts thrust into one another there many times appears, in the bordering lines, the same word or the same sound. Thus 1. 1b and 2a have in common tamsi hemante, 7 and 8a nābhilās°, 17b and 18a addakkhue, and, in addition, here (in the last case) savva-kamma 'āvahão and savvaso kammuṇā ya harmonize in sound with one another; similarly, in the Nai-sue and Naya-putte is found the explanation for the disturbance of the only possible serial succession 9a 10a 9b 10b. In the second Uddeśa asana combines the first two lines. This much further observation should suffice in order to raise it to certainty that the present-day form of the Uvahāṇa-suya, no less than that of the earlier chapters, is the work of our "editor"; almost all the features which characterize his style of work there we have again found here as well.
I feel no need to specially apologize for the detailed manner in which I have engaged myself with the particulars in the course of my investigation. Here is a case of the first attempt at considering a canonical Jaina work genetically. In connection with the remaining canonical texts it will be possible for one to proceed in a summary fashion. There too the same method will not seldom "reveal a whirling chaos of atoms" to employ an expression of Franke whose observations on the SuttaNipāta (ZDMG 63 1ff) confirm, often in a welcome fashion, those of mine
the ones to which I have held fast since very long. As there for the history of the Tipitaka so here for that of the Jaina canon the buildingstones will be at hand.
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