Jain Journal 1975 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 24

JAIN JOURNAL
Buddhists, or (iii) the followers of the Samkhya system. Some editors, including Dr. Charpantier prefer to read je samkhayā in place of je samkhayā. Dr. Jacobi follows this reading and translates 'heretics who are impure', etc. retaining 'impure' for asamkhayā. But this replacement of samkhayā with its exact antonym has proceeded from a prejudice that asamkhayam is a derogatory term-it being so the epithets like tuccha, etc. would not be deserved by samkhayā bearing an antithetical relation with it.
The antonym of asamkhayam, viz., samkhayam occurs in the Süyagadānga at (1-2-2-21) and (1-2-3-10). The verses run as follows :
ņa ya samkhayamāhu jīviyam tahamvi ya bālajaņo pagabbhai bāle pāpehim mijjai iti samkhāya muni na majjaī
ņa ya samkhayamāhu jīviyam tahavi ya bālaj ano pagabbhai paccuppanneņa kāriyam ko datthum paraloyamāgae
In these verses the expression na ya samkhayamāhu jiviyam is equivalent to asamkhayam jiviya of Uttarajjhayana and this too has been translated by Dr. Jacobi as 'life cannot be prolonged'. Silanka's Tikā on the former is very close to Santyacarya's Vịtti on the latter. Both the commentators relate samkhayam with sam+kr. In further elaborating the import of the expression they also elaborated the idea that the period of life once lost in wrong pursuits can never be retrieved. This elaboration, however, is more influenced by the context than deduced from the verbal denotation of the words.
In case of samkhayā occurring in the last verse of Uttarajjhayaņa chapter 4 the commentator Santyacarya gives three explanations as mentioned above connecting the word with sam + kr in the first two cases and with samkhyā in the 3rd. In all the three cases he contends that by samkhayā followers of some heretical, non-Jaina faith are denoted. This contention has been retained by Dr. Jacobi though he has preferred to read asamkhayā in place of samkhayā. Translating asamkhayā as 'impure' he adds ‘heretics' as an implication of the term.
2 It seems that the commentator is aware of the Mahayana Sanskrit literature
only.