Nandisutt and Anuogaddaraim

Author(s): Devvachak, Aryarakshit, Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 186

...[41]...
found in the beginning of the epistemological discussion contained in the Avaśyakaniryukti (2-6 and 12). Thus these gathās too are borrowed from the Avaśyakaniryukti.
To disclose the different types of anakṣaraśruta the Nandi (gāthā 78), again, makes use of the 20th gatha of the Avaśyakaniryukti.
The gathās that give the actual number of the vastus of the 14 Purvas are not considered by the author of the Nandisutra to be sangrahaṇī-gāthās. But in fact they should have been so considered. He himself regards the 82nd gāthā as sangrahaṇī-gāthā.
Such sangrahanis the students composed in order that they might easily remember the many points involved. Many a time even the author himself composed the sangrahaślokas and put them either in the beginning or at the end of the topic. The practice is found to have been followed in the very old works. Sometimes the author borrowed from some other works such sangrahaślokas as were considered to be useful in the context. This practice has been adopted by the author of the Nandisutra.
The gathās (83-87) occurring at the end of the Avaśyakaniryukti are also bodily taken from the Avaśyakaniryukti (19, 21-24). The 20th gatha of the Avaśyaka-niryukti, as we have already seen, is found as the 78th gatha of the Nandisutra.
Thus it becomes absolutely clear that while composing his Nandisutra Devavācaka has profusely drawn upon the Avasyakaniryukti.
The form in which we at present find the Niryuktis like the Avaśyakaniryukti is, in all probability, imparted to them by the Junior Ac. Bhadrabahu. But this by no means suggests that all the gathas of a particular Niryukti are composed by him. So, we can safely maintain that the Niryukti-gāthās that occur in the Nandi have come down from an old tradition.
Author of the Nandisutra-Devavācaka, a pupil of Dusagani
Dūsagani is mentioned last in the Sthaviravali contained in the Nandisutra. There the adjectival phrase applied to him is 'payaie mahuravāṇim' which in English means 'sweet-tongued by nature'. This suggests that the author of the Nandisūtra was in personal contact with Dusagaņi. Even the Curni on the Nandisutra corroborates this point. The author of the Curni explicitly states that Devavacaka was a pupil of Dūsagani ('dūsagaṇisīso devavāyago'
p. 13, P. T. S.) Thus the Curni for the first time gives the name of Devavācaka as the author of the Nandisutra. From the salutation made by the author to Dusagani it is to be inferred that the former was a pupil of the latter. The Curṇi not only lends support to this inference
41. Nandisutra, p. 8