Jain Journal 1995 07

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

Page 11

BOOK REVIEW
27
text society of Ahmedabad deserves special thanks for undertaking such a work.
The Bhagavati-sūtra is the fifth Anga of the Svetāmbara canonical literature. It is an important text amongst all the Jaina canonical works. The main theme of this study is the chronological stratification of the first 20 Śatakas of the Bhagavati. The main theme of the authoress is to prove which part of the Bhagavatī-sūtra is the earliest or the oldest one, if not the genuine one. There are 45 chapters. Out of these 45 chapters Dr Ohira has analysed only the first 20 and about the rest she has not endeavoured to do any chronological study except saying that chapters 21-41 are later accretions. She means to say that the first 20 chapters are the earlier compositions than the later ones. In order to substantiate her arguments she has divided her book into 4 chapters, subdivided again into many subsections. The main theme of the Bhagavati is the jiva-ajwa relations of the Jaina doctrines. She has discussed cosmology, astronomy and mythology as found in the Bhagavati. The karma and the bandha theories are also treated carefully.
A. Weber in his book The Fragments of Bhagavati published in 1883 has first observed that the Bhagavati, broadly speaking, consisted of 2 different compilations : an earlier part consists of the chapters 1-20 excluding the chapter 15, while the later part is the chapters 21-41. The earlier part is characterised by Satakas and Uddeśyakas, while the later part consists of uddesyakas only. This type of analysis is also found in W. Schubring's Doctrines of the Jains (1935 and 1962). He has followed Weber and has made ample use of the contexts of his Bhagavati. Later on, J. Deleu has done a detailed study of the Bhagavati giving an exhaustive account of its contexts, and in a sense, he has made a significant improvement upon Weber's model. However, Dr Ohira's monograph is concerned mainly with the nucleus alone and has only made a systematic and historical study of the Bhagavatisütra.
Without going into details it can be said that her study is not only systematic and exhaustive, but also logical and historical. Of all the general studies on the Bhagavati her study is definitely the improved version and for that she deserves special thanks. As the Bhagavatisūtra is a huge work and can be studied from different aspects we hope that in future also some other studies on the Bhagavati will be done by her.
As this is an important work her contribution in the annals of the Bhagavati will remain superb. And I therefore recommend this book to the Jain scholars.
Satya Ranjan Banerjee