Jain Journal 1985 01

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

Page 26

JANUARY, 1985
The eminent German scholar, Dr. Hermann Jocobi, who has translated the four Jaina canons-The Acaranga Sutra, the Kalpa Sutra, the Sutrakṛtānga Sutra and the Uttaradhayana Sutra into English has made the following translation of the above verses.5
"He had no interest in this world and no interest in the next world; he was indifferent to unpleasant and pleasant things, to eating and fasting."
87
Dr. Jacobi also makes the following remark in the foot-note: "vāst candaṇa kappa-The author of the Avacuri explains this phrase thus : 'He did not like more a man who anoints himself with sandal than mason.' Apparently he gives to vāsa the meaning 'dwelling'. But I think that the juxtaposition of candana calls for a word denoting a bad smelling substance perhaps 'ordure'."6
A close examination of the above quotation would show that both Dr. Jacobi and the author of Avacûri' have misinterpreted the word vast. By vast, the author of Avacuri understands a mason or a place of dwelling deriving probably from the Sanskrit word vāsa, whereas Dr. Jacobi translates vāsi as some 'unpleasant thing' or 'a bad smelling substance', perhaps 'ordure' (i.e. filth or dung).
4 SBE., Vols. XXII, XLV.
5 Ibid., Vol. XLV, p.99.
• Ibid. Vol. XLV, p.99.
? Dr. Jacobi has not mentioned the name of the author of the Avacuri. In the introduction to his translations, describing the MS. of Avacuri, he writes, "But I have had at my disposal an illuminated old MS. of the Avacuri, belonging to the Strassburg University Library. This work is apparently an abstract from the Vrtti of Santyacarya, as in a great many passages it almost verbally agrees with Devendra's work (which is an abstract from Santyacarya's Vrtti)"-S.B.E., Vol. XLV, introduction, pp. x1, xli.
Hari Damodar Velankar, who has composed an exhaustive register of the Jaina works and authors (in Sanskrit and Prakrit), mentions four different avacuris on the Uttaradhyayana Sutra:
(1) Composed in Samvat 1441 by Jnanasagarasuri, pupil of Devasundarasuri, of the Tapa Gaccha.
(2) By Jnanasilagani (year not mentioned).
(3) By unknown author in Samvat 1488.
(4) By unknown author (year not mentioned).
(See Jinaratna-kosa, by H. D. Velankar, pub by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1944, pp. 44-45).
Velankar has also mentioned the names of places and libraries where MSS. are existing. But unfortunately, Strassburg is not mentioned with any of the above four Avacuries. It is therefore difficult to know the name of the author of the Avacuri used by Dr. Jacobi.