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centuries of the Vikrama Era 6 of these the following four, viz., the Niryukti by Bhadrabăhu II (6th cent. of V, Sam.), the Curņi by Jinadasagani Mahattara (6th cent.) on both the Uttaradhyayana Sutra and the Niryukti of Bhadrabahu, the Sisya-hita alias Bșhad-Vștti (also called Paiatika) by Vadi-vetala śāntisuri (V. Sam. 1096), and the Sukhabodha-laghuVịtti by Nemicandra'gani (V. Sam. 1129), which are definitely anterior to Jinabhadrasüri, are pertinent to our problem of the sources of the MRA.
From amongst these four commentaries on the Uttaradhyayana Sutra, the first three do not treat the story of Madanarekha at all. It is with the fourth one, viz., the Sukhabodha-laghu-vștti of Nemicandra-gani (V. Sam, 1129, i.e. A.D. 1072) that we find a fully recorded version of the story of Madanarekha.? The next version definitely anterior to the MRA by about half a century is by Ācārya Amradevasūri (V. Sam. 1190), the author of the Akhyānaka-maņikoşa-Vrtti,
By the by it is interesting to note that this same Nemicandra-gapi, the author of the Akhyānaka-maņikoşa, did not mention Madanarekha even by her name in the thirty-fifth chapter, called 'Avaśya-praptyadhikara' of his above-mentioned work. It was left to his commentator and disciple Āmradevasūri to elaborate the story as a part of the story treating the renunciation by Nami.. This might incidentally prove that, though the extant recorded version of the story of Madanarekha does not date back prior to the twelfth century of the Vikrama Era, the story as such was definitely well preserved since very long time in oral tradition of the Jaina monks as an essential background of the story of Nami, the Pratyekabuddha, whose mother Madanarekha was. Moreover, her story was being preserved for the special reason that she was one of the recognized ideals of chaste woman-hood and canonized nuns in the Jaina religious folk tradition,
The story of Madanarekha is also narrated by Bālacandrasuri in his commentary on Vivekamanjari of Āsada (V. Sam. 1278). Āsada himself has mentioned only the name of Mayaņareha' as one in the list of twenty six “wonderful mothers of the Tirthankaras” (titthankarāņa-jaņaņiolo) Here the story is shorn of the incidents of the quarrel between Nami and
6. Ut. Su. E. A. pp. 47–51. 7. Ut. SBLV, folios 136-141. 8. Cf. AMKV, p. 276 :
जं जस्स पूवविहियं सो तं पावेइ पत्थुदाहरणा। करकंड-नमी तह चारुदत्त-वणिबन्धुदत्ता य॥ 9. Op. cit., pp. 278-282. 10. VMV, foiio 110, vss. 55-58.
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