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Iha santhu mahävash! bhattibher nibbhren hiyaena Tä Deva dijja bohi bhave bhave Päsa Jinachanda
This way, O Mahäyash (Pärshvanatha) I praise thee with a heart full of devotion. Please give me the ultimate wisdom (bohi) in this life and the lives to come, O Pärshva Jineshvara.
This final verse is a concluding one wherein the poet says that he has a heart, which is full of devotion, and he also asks for one final thing. Wisdom (bohi) coupled with Pärshvanätha's religion in this and other future lives.
The word bohi comes from the Sanskrit 'bodhi' meaning wisdom and knowledge. This word is not very widely used by Jains but Buddhists have made use of this word extensively. In fact Lord Buddha in the form of Bodhisattava is mentioned in Buddhist texts'.
5.7
Composition of the Uvasaggaharam Stotra
This poem is written in the Gähä metre (chhanda) which is also called the Arya in Sanskrit. The language of this stotra is Präkrit and, according to the Präkrit book of the science of poems (Pingal), Gähä Chhanda must have this composition":
In Sanskrit, a syllable can have one or two mäträs. A mäträ is an imaginary measurement of time taken in pronouncing any particular letter or syllable. A normal and easy way is to see how the syllable is pronounced. The letter or syllable on its own or a short one has one mäträ (measure) whereas any letter when it is joined with another letter or any syllable having a longer pronunciation is considered as having two mäträs. e.g.: the sound b in bus or but has one mäträ. When you write ball it sounds like b-0-1 here bo has also one mäträ because it is a short sound, but if you write bowl then the pronunciation would be- bau - 1. Here bau is considered one long syllable having two mäträs.
We can now check the composition of the Uvasaggaharam Stotra, bearing in mind that short sounds have one mäträ and long sounds have two.
The first phrase (if you divide the verse in four parts), should have twelve mäträs, the second should have eighteen mäträs, the third must have the same number of mäträs as the first, one and the last and the fourth phrase should have fourteen mäträs. This is the characteristic of the meter called Gähä Chhanda.
U va sa gga haram Pasam 11 1 2 1 2 2 2
total 12 mäträs
Pa sam van da mi ka ma gha na mu kkam 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 2
18 mäträs
The Wisdom of India , edited by Lin Yutang, Four Square Series, Redhill, Surrey 1956. Page 552 2 Padhame barah matta, bie atthara hoi sanjutta Jah padhmam taha tiyam, dah-pancha-vibhusia, Gaha. Uvassagaharam Stotra by Pandit D Shah page 219
