In Search of the Original Ardhamagadhi English Translation

Author(s): K R Chandra, N M Kansara, Nagin J Shah, Ramniklal M Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 96

6. THE TEXUAL READING OF THE OPENING SENTENCE
THE UPODGHĀTA OF THE ACĀRĀNGA
While passing on orally to his disciple Jambūswami the teachings of Lord Mahāvīra, that were listened to by him as they were uttered by the Lord, the Ganadhara Sri Sudharmāswāmi with the words : “suyani me ausani! tenan (v.l. tena in Cūrni) bhagavayā evam akkhāyam ..." ( the beginning of the First Uddeśaka of the First Adhyayana of the First Śruta - skandha of the Ācārānga )
We may think first, on the two words of this statement, 'ausaṁ' and 'tenań' from the context in the sentence, and then the three words, viz., 'suyaṁ', 'bhagavayā' and 'akkhāyam' from the linguistic point of view.
There can be nothing to remark regarding this statement if it has been added subsequently - a very very long time posterior to the age of Sudharmāswāmī, for establishing a system of narration. But, if this statement had existed right from the time of the redaction of the First Council (prior to the Fourth century B.C. i.e. even before Aśoka), it definitely deserves to be deliberated upon.
Sudharmāswāmī was a direct disciple of Lord Mahāvīra, and Jambūswāmī that of the former. From the point of view of time, Lord Mahāvīra was not a past teacher far removed from Sudharmāswāmī, so as to necessiate the latter' to use the words 'tenaṁ bhagavaya', i.e. by that Lord', for Lord Mahāvīra. If the intervening period had been very long, and it had been an incident of past, such a usage would have been justified; otherwise it does not seem proper.
There is no unanimity about this usage among the commentators in Sanskrit and the curīkāra too. About the possibility of the reading ‘āusamtena' in the place of 'āusaṁ tena', the author of the Cūrņi (p.9) writes : "ahavā āusaṁtena, jīvata kahitam athavā ausamtena gurukulavāsaṁ ahavā āusamtena sāmipādā viņayapuvvo sissāyariyakamo darisio hoi āvasamta äusamtaggahanena /".