Nandisutt and Anuogaddaraim

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

Page 191

...[46]...
as to the piṇḍārtha (contents)-also called arthadhikāras (topics)-of its six adhyayanas (chapters), an enumeration of the titles of these adhyayanas and an interpretation of the term 'sāmāyika'. But nowhere do we find in it an exposition of the words contained in the Avasyakasutra. All this makes it clear that the Anuyogadvārasūtra mainly deals with the entrances to exposition; it does not seek to comment upon the Avaśyakasutra as such. The author's declared intention to comment upon the Avaśyakasutra means simply this much that he had decided to take up the Avasyakasūtra as an example to illustrate the method of exposition. Thus the Anuyogadvārasūtra is a work dealing with the method of exposition that a commentator should adopt while interpreting and explaining the Agamas. The title of this work, viz. Anuyogadvara is quite apposite. The nature of the work being what it is, it has secured the status of a sutra. The reason why it is not known as a commentary on some work is simply that even while pledging to comment upon the Avaśyakasutra it does not in fact do so.
In the Agama literature the Avaśyakasutra is accorded a place of importance next only to the Angas. This is so because it treats of the 'sāmāyika' (mental tranquillity) with which starts one's career as a monk and also because it lays down as to how a monk or a nun should render pure and practise the essential daily duties he or she is required to perform at both the twilights. Hence the study of this sūtra even before that of the Angas has been deemed indispensable2. This again is why the Anuyogadvārasutra declares that it is going to expound the Avaśyakasutra. Though as a commentary it explains only the terms occurring in the title of the work and does not explain the complete text of the Avaśyakasutra, the method of exposition it has employed and demonstrated is followed by the commentators in expounding the Agamas. In other words, we may say that under the pretext of writing a commentary upon the Avaśyakasutra the author of the Anuyogadvārasūtra has given us a veritable key to the understanding of the entire corpus forming Agamas. Ac. Jinabhadra has elucidated in his Viseṣāvasyakabhāṣya only the first adhyayana of the Avaśyakasutra, viz. the Sāmāyika. The same tradition of expounding only the first adhyayana of the Avaśyakasutra is found also in the Anuyogadvarasutra. As regards the importance of such an exposition of the Sāmāyika-adhyayana Ac. Jinabhadra in his Bhasya observes:
2. “सामाइयाईणि एकादसंगाणि ” – भगवतीसू० ९३; “सामाइ... चोइस पुव्वाई ? – भगवतीसू० ६१७; “ सामाइयमातीयं सुतणाणं नाव बिंदुसाराओ " – आवश्यक निर्युक्तिगाथा ९३ : विशेषा० स्वो० गा० ११२३; विशेषा० हे० टी० गा० ११२६. Refer to the Introduction to 'Jaina Sāhityakā Brhad Itihasa' (Published by P. V. Research Institute, B. H. U., Varanasi-5), p. 55