Mahavira and his Teaching

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

Page 52

ON SOME NONCANONICAL SUBHASITA
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It is a treasury of didactic verses on various subjects compiled by some Pūrväcārya, and published as volume 57 of the Sresthī Devacandra Lālbh āī Jaina-pustakoddhāra Granthālamkāra. It was edited by J. S. Jhaveri in Bombay in 1922 in Ms. form. This anthology is divided into 127 chapters and contains 2030 subhāṣita-s, mostly written in Sanskrit, but some also in Prākrit. It is also not a typical Jaina subhāşıta-sangraha; it contains
(Contd) edited in Yasovijaya Jaina Granthamala, No. 18. Cf. Ferdinando Bellona-Filippi in Grornale della Società Asiatica Italiana (GSAI.) 28; 153 sqq.; cf. Viśvatattvaprakaśa, Jivara ja Jaina Granthamālā 16, Sholapur 1964, Introduction p. 84).
In AD 1630 Sa ma ya sun dar a composed an extensive, partly Prakrit and partly Sanskrit work called Gāth āsa h asri (Collection of One Thousand Gāthā-s); Samayasundara was the pupil of Sakalacandra, pupil of Jinacandra; he was also the author of the Kalpala tā a commentary on the Kalpasūtra and of the Visa m vā da sa ta ka. His Gāthāsahasrl is not exclusively a subhāşata-samgraha but also a collection of verses dealing with events in early Jaina church history. The subhāşıta part was compiled from works of Devendra süri, Haribhadra and other authors who were not always Jainists; they are also mostly of general application (cf. P. Peterson, Three Reports (1884-86) pp. 3-10 and 284-90).
Other Prakrit anthologies are the Bhava vairāgya sa ta ka, a collection of one hundred stray verses, more of Jainistic character, dealing with the vanity of existence and salvation through Jainism (edited and translated into Italian by L P. Tessori in Giornale della societa Asiatica Italiana (GSAI) 22, pp. 179 sqq and 24.405 sqq ; also edited in Vol. III of the Prakaranaratnākara, Bombay 1876) and the modern collection of subhāşıta-s, the Prakrita-s ūk taratna mālā compiled and translated into Euglish by Puran Chand Nahar (Calcutta 1919); it is also non-Jinistic in character.
It should also be mentioned that Guna bhadra composed a religious and didactic anthology, the Ātman u sāsa na; this anthology which contains 267 verses in different metres was composed around A.D. 800. Guņabhadra was the pupil of Jinasena and teacher of Lokasena;