Mahaviras Word

Author(s): Walther Shubring
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 39

Mahavira's Words by Walther Schubring
(51).
According to the Acaränga tradition the Maha-parinnä, after the sixth chapter, has been left out; according to the Nandi, the Avasyaka-niryukti ( and the Vidhiprapa (53) it appeared in the ninth section after the Uvahana-suya. If one should believe the latter two then Vajra would have removed agasa-gamini vijja from it, which then would have got lost, because this extract overlapped with the original (? säisayattaṇena). This is obviously a confusion with the Sumahāpaiņṇa-puvva about which the same is asserted in Jinadatta's Ganadharasârdhaŝataka (see Weber 1885, s.v.). This is so because Vajra, precisely as a Purva expert, commands respect in the tradition and, besides, the table of contents transmitted in the Acar.-niryukti apparently contains nothing out of which a special knowledge leading to magical powers could have been acquired. In Niry. 34 the general content is given as moha-samutthä parisah 'uvasagga, (and) the special content after the 7 (footnote: Devraj 1902 erroneously says 16) uddesas in Niryukti 253-263, cp. the car. edition, Calcutta 1879, pp. 435f54) In six stanzas follow, furthermore, discussions over the components of the chapter, a more detailed treatment of the topics of the chapter does not follow, in contrast to the usual practice. If this alone suggests that already the composer of the Niryukti did not have direct access to the Mahaparinna himself, then I too would like to deduce the same from the conspicuous detail of his table of contents and ask whether his sources perhaps may have reported to him what was beyond actuality.
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8. Vimoho.
(1.2) 32, 25-33, 2.4
A. Prose. The services of a monk rendered to monks and laity, (pantham)-6 (7. 8:) 34, 31-35, 4 (3.4:) 36, 22-27 (5.6) 38, 13-19.
As one sees, the sequence in which these places are put today does not correspond to the one according to its contents. The reading I have of it will be clearest in a translation:
"(1) [A monk] may not give [another] monk or a layperson food, etc., or offer it [and] not do him any service, by which he, thereby, has [calculated] consideration for the other. (2) He may do it and thereby (in fact] go a part of the way back, or deviate from the road, interrupt his ascetic practice and [as it were] enter from the state of peace into that of [worldly] activity-if he thereby has [calculated] consideration for the other.
(3) A monk for whom the following arrangement obtains: "approached by those whom I have not requested, I will have a service rendered to me by a healthy fellow monk when I become sick; if I so wish, and on my part, unrequested, render a fellow monk who is sick, whom I myself, healthy, have approached, if he so wishes that I do it: (4) putting aside renunciation I shall acquire [food, etc.] and allow that [it] be specially provided, or do one of these or neither"
(5) a monk who thinks the following: "for other monks I shall specially provide for food, etc., give, or allow that it be specially provided, do one of these or neither of the two; (6) [or] with this left over food, etc., which is free of fault, unchanged, I shall render a service to a fellow monk, if he wishes that I do it, and shall on my part, if I so wish, let the service be rendered thereby (to me)"(7) [whereas for this purpose such] a monk may not give, or offer food, etc., to a layperson [and] not render him a service, by which he has [calculated] consideration for him, (8) but indeed,
51 Śilanka 235a2 on Ayar. 1, 7, 1 at the beginning; cf. further Weber 1883, p. 251ff. and Kapadia 1941, p. 78 (WB).
52 AvN. 660 quoted by Haribhadra 76, 13f. on Nandi Sūtra 87 gives Mahāparinnā as ch. 8, between Vimoho and Uvahāṇa. This reference to the Nandi was not found, but see Thānanga 9, 2 and Samavaya 9, 3 (WB). 53 On this see Weber 1883, p. 223.
54 Since the 1879 Calcutta ed. of the Acaranganiryukti will hardly be available, this section of it referred to by Schubring here is supplied in Appendix 4 (WB).