Jain Journal 2004 04

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

Page 55

256
JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XXXVIII, NO. 4 APRIL. 2004
i) something I have decided when I was travelling on the train; or it may mean
ii) out of many conveyances. I have decided that I shall go by train; or it may mean
iii) my ideas come to my mind when I normally travel by train, and so on.
In this connection it should be noted that the Jains are not lacking in unfurling the deep and surface structures of a sentence. In the Bhagavati-sūtra (Book ten, chapter III), in course of conversation with Mahāvīra, Goyama (Gautama) asks Mahāvīra some questions on language. The text in question runs as follows:
aha bhante! āsaissāmo saissāmo citthissāmo ņisiissāmo tuyatthissāmo āmamtaņi āņavaņi jāyaṇi taha pucchaņi ya pannavaņi paccakkhāņi bāsā bhāsā icchānulomā ya aṇabhiggahiyā bhāsā bhāsā ya abhiggahammi boddhavvā samsayakaraņi voyadamavvoyaļā ceva pannavaņi ņam esā bhāsā ņa esā bhāsā mosā.
"Oh venerable one (bhante)! [when one says) we shall reside (āsaissāmo), we shall lie (down) (saissāmo), we shall stand (up) (citthissāmo), we shall sit (down) (ạisiissāmo), we shall stretch (tuyațhissāmo), the forms of language (paņņavaņi bhāsā) i.e. one of the twelve kinds of expressions] (bhāsā) such as, [1] addressing (āmamtaņi) [2] ordering (āņāvaṇī), [3] prayer (jāyaṇī) as well as, [4] questioning (pucchaņi), [5] advice (paņņavaņi, [6] refusing (paccakkhāni), [7] consenting (icchāņulomā), [8] irrelevant (aṇabhiggahiyā). [9] relevant (abhiggahammi boddhavvā), [10] doubtful (samsaya karaṇī), [11] explicit (voyadā) or [12] indefinite (avvoyadā) --- do these forms conform to the type of understanding (i.e. paņņavani advice) or are they never false (ņa esā bhāsā mosa)? Mahāvīra's reply was---
na esā bhāsā mosā
“They are not false." In fact, these questions of Goyama to Mahāvīra is related to seriences of a language. In a language, the utterances of human beings can we expressed in manifold ways of which some twelve forms are
See K. C. Lalwani, Bhagavati-sūtra vol IV, Book ten chapter III, Calcutta1985 pp. 133-134, Josef Deleu, Viyahapannatti, Delhi, 1996, p. 169. This verse is also found in the Pannavaņā-sūtra, ch 11, p 172 of Jain Vishva Bharati edition.