Jaina Exegetical Terminology Pk Vibhasa Detailed Exposition

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Nalini Balbir

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Jaina exegetical terminology Pk. vibhāsā
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If it were to be placed in a dictionary, the present study would only be a part of the entry vibhāsā covering a specific shade of meaning evolved in Jaina Prakrit commentaries which the usual Prakrit dictionaries do not record as such or for which they provide scarce material. A complete article would also take into account the weakening of this meaning (vibhāsā tends to become an equivalent of vyākhyā 'explanation')38 and would list usages and references nearer to what is found in Sanskrit (meaning: 'option', possibility').39 All of them are developed from the potentialities included in the preverb vi- which implies dissociation, completeness, and also deviation (cf. Sk. vibhāṣā as the name given to some Prakrit dialects of low-caste people, and the use of the term in Pāṇinean grammar).40
Appendix
As complementary material regarding the use of the word vibhāsā, I wish to add an extract from E. Leumann's posthumous papers made available to me through the kind help of Prof. A. Wezler (Hamburg). It can be read on pp. 6-7 of a document which includes 22 leaves, very neatly written and apparently ready for the press. A reference found on p. 1 suggests that it was to be a part of the Übersicht über die Avasyaka-Literatur.41 Leumann's aim was to determine the relative chronology of the Avaśyakacūrņi and the (Bșhat)kalpacūrņi. In order to answer this question he undertook a detailed study of the language, especially of the terminology and the modi explicandi of this second cūrņi. As usual, his work which extensively covers the first uddesaka of the BKBh-cūrņi is entirely based on manuscripts ("P" and "B" referred to and described in A. Weber, Verzeichnis, 2. Band, 2. Abteilung, Nr. 1894). No progress has been made so far in the study of this cūrņi which is still unpublished in 1993.
Hinter vyākhyā resp. vibhāsā ist in einigen Fällen noch eine Pkt. oder Skt. Einleitung (z.B. nach dem Schema III 1, a)42 eingeschoben. Zuweilen folgt nicht die normale Text-Aufführung (nach der unten III 2 zu schildernden Methode), sondern eine erklärende Paraphrase; hinter etise vibhāsā steht beidemal ein Hinweis auf die Oghaniryukti, (1) auf die auch sonst öfter verwiesen wird.