Jain Journal 1996 10

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

Page 17

DHAKY : UMĀSVĀTI IN EPIGRAPHICAL AND LITERARY TRADITION
59
citations, two from the Sūtra-text and two from the Bhāsya done directly in the name of Umāsvāti, figuring as they do in the cūrņi by Agastuasimha (c. 575-600 A.D.) (see Punya Vijava. 1973: 85) on the Daśavaikälika-sūtra (c. 4th-2nd centuries B.C.). These being the earliest very clear references to Umāsvāti (and his two compositions, the Sūtra and the Bhāşya), I cite them below in extenso : sarvāsrava-dvāra-pratyapāya-darśanārtham bhagavad
Omāsvātinābhihitam"himsādişvihāmūtra cāpāyāvadya darśanam"
(Tattvā 7.4), "duḥkham ēva vā” [Tattvā 7.5), "vyādhipratikāratvāt kandūparigatavaccābramha...”
(Tattvā 7.5 Sūtrabhāsyē). "parigrahēșvaprāptanaştēșu kāńkşā-śö kau prāptēşu ca rakṣaṇam upabhōgē cāpyatşptiņ"
[Tattvā 7.5 Sūtrabhāsyē] Although he does not mention Umāsvāti or the Tattvärthādhigamasūtra and its Bhāsya, the great Svetāmbara dialectician, Mallavādi Ksamāśramana, the author contemporaneous to Agastyasimha, 2 quotes a phrase, yathārthābhidhānam sabdah, (Jambuvijaya 1976 596) which is a definition of the term sabda that has been traced inside the Bhāsya(Jambuvijaya, 1966: 23). And earlier than Mallavādi, Siddhasēna Divākara (active c. 400-444 A.D.)25 seems familiar with the Tattvārthādhigama-sūtra as well as its Bhāşya and possibly also with the Prasamarati-prakarana.26 This unambiguously proves the antiquity of the Sūtra text as well as of the Bhāsya, and places Umāsvāti's date before the fifth century A.D. The most direct, just as the earliest, evidence on the authorship of the Tattvārthādhigamasūtra (as well as its Bhäsya) is of course the grantha-prašasti at the end of the Bhasya as had been lucidly shown by Sanghvi, Jagadishchandra, as well as Premi.27 I cite below this encomium (with which epigraphers and non-Nirgrantha historians in India in general are unfamiliar), followed by its translation in English:
24. I. as well as Jitendra Shah (n.d.), date Mallavādi to the latter half of the
sixth century and not to the fourth century A.D. as has been done by
most Svētāmbara Jaina scholars. 25. I am discussing the date of Siddhasēna Divākara elsewhere. 26. The opening verse of his Dvātrimśikā 19 which is an echo of the sūtra 1
of the Tattvārthādhigama-sūtra; and the opening verse of his Dvātrimsikā 20 which reflects awareness of the kārikā 204 of the Prasamarati
prakarana. (In the former connection Cf. Upadhye 1971:162, 164). 27. In a long paper I am discussing their views with all citations and
observations thereof.