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are not available. Virasena's Dhavalā commentary throws some light on the early works. It is evident that he has composed his gloss with the help of Bappadevaguru's Vyākhyā-prajñapti, an earlier commentary. Virasēna has increased the prominence and utility of his gloss by quoting principal Digambara authors. He has also comprohensively quoted from the canonical literature such as the Acārānga, the BỊhatkalpa sūtra, the Dasavaikālika, the Anuyogadvāra, the Avasyaka Niryukti and others.
4.4.3.5. Above all, a note worthy point of Virasēna's Dhavalā commentary is that he has referred to two different pratipattis, assertions that existed before gth century. Of the two assertions known as uttara-pratipatti and dakşiņapratipatti, Virasēna mentions that the latter was direct and traditional, whereas the former was perverse and untraditional. Virasēna does not hesitate to point out that the teachings of Nāgahastin was pavāijjanta, traditional, and those of Arya Mankşu (Mangu) apavāijjamāņu, untraditional. Virasēna's acumen is so sharp that he has recorded diverge variants of the texts, deviation of opinions among early masters, and often tried to illustrate them. All this substantiate that Virasēna was a scholar of class, equipped with the knowledge of all the early attempts and their settled variations. In the modern terminology, Virasēna was the earliest to have possessed a fair knowledge of textual criticism, of noting different recensions.
4.4.3.6. Monach Virasēna composed and merrily completed, single handed, a voluminous commentary of Dhavalā-Ţikā 'the luminous' commentary of the size of 72,000 verses, on Satkhandāgama. His coup de maitre, master stroke continued. He once again launched on a similar work, christening it, Jaya-Dhavalā-Țikā, 'the victoriously luminous', commentary on Kaşāyaprābrta. This time, patriarch-scholar Virasēna could compose 20,000
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