Jain Journal 1993 10

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

Page 20

76
JAIN JOURNAL
The Kalpasūtram was the first Jain text which was made known, in 1848, in the very faulty translation of Rev. J. Stevenson. It is now carefully edited by H. Jacobi, 1879, to whose instructive introduction I have so often referred.
We have already observed, that of the three parts of which it is composed, the last alone can claim to belong to the dasdu. The two other parts were originally not connected. Each of them is divided into three portions, the first of which contains the history of Mahavira, the second that of his 23 predecessors, the third a list of his successors, [471] Therävli, to Deviddhi-khamāsamaņa, the nominal redactor of the 45 agama.
This Therävalı agrees as regards each of its first twelve parts with those statements which are found in the therävali of the Nandi and of the Āvasyakasūtra, and in the later tradition of the Jains (rșimandalasūtra, of the Dharmaghoşa etc.). But from this point on there is no such harmony. The list found here is the most complete, since it embraces a large number of the lateral branches proceeding from each of the patriarchs ; and contains all sorts of divergences from the other lists. Jacobi distinguishes "four or five distinct treatises" (p. 23).
It is self-evident that any connection is impossible between this Theravali and Bhaddabahu, the nominal author of the Kalpasūtra - see below—who appears in the seventh place in the list of patriarchs. The Therávali contains eleven members more (ajja Vaira, Vajrasvamin, as number 16) nor did it belong originally to the Kalpasūtra. This conclu. sion holds good also in the case of the account of the 23 predecessors of Vira which introduces it. In this account we find some few details in reference to two of Vira's immediate predecessors, Påsa and Aritthanemo, and in reference to Usabha who is placed first in the series. The other predecessors are treated of in a very few words. The relation is retrogressive, beginning with the 23rd. We find no mention that Malli (Mali in the text of Jacobi) was a woman.
The intention of collecting everything that had reference to Jainism is manifest in the addition (472) (see Stevenson, p. 99) of these two sections, in reference to the successors and predecessors of Mahavira, to the main part of the Kalpasūtra which treated of his life.
This main portion contains towards the close (§ 148) statements mentioning the dates 280 and 993 after Vira. According to Jacobi