Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 10

JAINA EXEGETICAL LITERATURE
degree, interspersed with Sanskrit, in many cases Sanskrit passages being clearly marked as later by their contents, and the amount of Sanskrit a Curni contains being a criterion of its relative age. In the 8th century, the learned Brahmin Haribhadra, a Buddhaghosa of Jainism, inaugurates the period of the classical Sanskrit commentaries, the Tikās. To a large extent, they mechanically transpose Prakrit explanations into Sanskrit; the rich treasure of stories and parables which is such a distinguishing and attractive trait of Jaina exegesis is left unchanged by the classical Tikā authors; only their late successors will translate them into Sanskrit. But at the same time we notice a distinct tendency to modernize: archaic, primitive traits of the Curni are deleted and replaced by a scholarship borrowing its tools and weapons from the armoury of Brahmanical learning, e.g. the Nyaya. A good example is the traditional account of the Seven Schisms. For each of them there is an old Prakrit kathānaka supplying a refutation of the heretical doctrine in the primitive form of an anecdotal story demonstrating more or less drastically its foolishness. The Tikās retain the Prakrit kathānakas unchanged but raise them to the higher scientific level of their time by inserting learned theoretical refutations in Sanskrit proving their familiarity with contemporary philosophy. I need hardly add that just those archaic traits which the Tikās remove as obsolete or primitive may be of particular interest for the student of early Indian thinking. Thus, the systematic study of the Curnis, hardly begun as yet, promises to be rewarding.
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The Curni as well as the older type of Tikā has assumed the form of a commentary on the Nijjutti as well as on the canonical text itself, portions explaining Nijjutti stanzas alternating with portions commenting on the sutra text. To explain this seemingly odd arrangement for is not the Nijjutti itself a commentary on the Sutra?-it is necessary to add some more remarks on the contents and methods of a Nijjutti.
Its most characteristic and prominent feature is the so-called nikṣepa, no doubt the exclusive invention of Jaina scholars and their most original contribution to scholastic research. The space at my disposal forbids the detailed treatment this subject needs and deserves. Reserving it to a future occasion I can only briefly describe the nikṣepa as a method of investigation to which any word or concept can be subjected by applying different viewpoints. The four original viewpoints are nama or denomination; sthāpanā or effigy; dravya, the material, concrete, non-spiritual aspect; and
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