Jain Journal 1999 04

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

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Vol. XXXIII
MAURICE WINTERNITZ*
The Digambara Umāsvāmin, who is called Umāsvāti by the Śvetāmbaras1 and described as a pupil of Ghoşanandi Kṣamāśramaṇa, was, according to tradition, a pupil of Kundakunda. The Digambaras also give him the epithet Gṛdhrapiccha, "Vulture's feather," which Kundakunda had too, and the title "Reciter" (Vacaka-sramana or Vacakācārya). According to the Digambara-Paṭṭāvalīs he lived from about 135 to 219 A.D., whilst the statements of the Svetambaras not only contradict those of the Digambaras, but even contradict one another.2 In any case he is earlier than Siddhasena Divakara, who wrote a commentary on the principal work of Umāsvāti. He is said to have written no less than 500 books, but his most famous work, which he wrote in Pataliputra, is the Tattvärthadhigama-Sutra,3 "the Manual for the Understanding of the True Nature of Things," a Sanskrit manual, which is recognised as an authority by both Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras, and even at the present day is read by all Jainas in private houses and temples. By reading this book once through one is said to acquire just as much religious merit as by fasting for one day. The logic, psychology, cosmography, ontology and ethics of the Jainas,
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JAIN JOURNAL
No. 4 April
UMĀSVĀMĪ/UMĀSVĀTI
*
From History of Indian Literature, Vol-II, Calcutta University, 1933. 1. He is said to be called so because his mother was called Umā Vātsi and his father Svāti.
2. Cf. Klatt, Jaina-Onomasticon, p. 4 f.; Peterson, 3 Reports, p. 328 f.; Report IV, p. xvi f.; Jacobi in ZDMG 60, 1906, 288 f.; Vidyabhuṣaṇa, History of Indian Logic, p. 168 ff.; L. Suali, Introductione alla Studio della Filosofina Indiana, Pavia 1913, p. 36 ff.; J.L. Jaini in SBJ II, p. vii; Farquhar, Outline, p. 164 f. Neither are the statements of the Digambaras free from ambiguity. J.H. Woods, The Yoga-System of Patanjali (HOS Vol. 17), p. xix, makes it appear probable that Umāsvāti quotes from the Yoga-Sutra.
Edited with the Commentary, by Vakil Keshavlal Premchand Mody in Bibl. Ind. 1903-1905, together with a few minor works of Umāsväti in the appendices; with a commentary in Hindi, also in Rayacandra-JainaŚāstramālā, Bombay 1906; with Introduction, Translation, Notes and Commentary in English by J.L. Jaini, Arrah 1920, SBJ, Vol. 2; Text of the Sūtras also in Bhandarkar, Report 1883-84, p. 405 ff.; and in DJGK I; translated into German and explained by H. Jacobi in ZDMG 60, 1906, 287 ff., 512 ff.; cf. Peterson, Report II, 78ff., 156 ff.
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On the classification of the animals according to Tattvärthadhigama, cf. B.N. Seal in the Appendix to B.K. Sarkar, The Primitive Background of Hindu Sociology, Allahabad 1914, p. 323 ff.