________________
116
is appropriate. Date and Authorship
According to the Daśāśrutaskandha-cūrni, this text was extracted from the pratyākhyānapūrva. The extraction was made by caturdaśapūrvi Ācārya Bhadrabāhu svæmni.
The text of the 8th daśā of this Āgama is in an abridged form. Here the sutra starts with tenaṁ kälenam tenaṁ samaeņaṁ samane bhagave mahāvīre pañca hatthuttare hotthā' and ends with 'java bhujjo-bhujjo uvadansai'. The expression 'java' indicates the whole paryușaņākalpa. In some recensions, the entire paryusaņākalpa is found inserted here. We have given the paryușaņākalpa in an appendix.
The adhyayana under reference has five divisions-(1) the biography of Mahāvīra (1-107), (2) the biography of the remaining twenty-three tirthankaras (108—181), (3) the list of gañadharas (182—185), (4) the list of sthaviras (186222), and (5) paryuşaņākalpa (223—288)
The Daśāśrutaskandha has three principal commentaries--1. Niryukti, 2. Cūrņi, 3. Vrtti. For the present adhya yana, the niryukti is exclusively on the paryuşanākalpa. It appears from this that the remaining portion of the adhyayana was not as a part of it before the niryuktikara. It was explained as an auspicious text, according to him.
purimacarimāņa kappo, mangalam vaddhamāṇatitthammi /
iha parikahiya jiņaganaharāj therävalicarittaṁ // Cūrņi—'purimacarimāņa ya titthagarāņam esa maggo ceva, jahā--vāsāvāsam pajjosaveta vvam, padau vā vāsam mā vā. majjhimagāņam puņa bhayaņijjam. avi ya vaddhamāṇatitthammi mangalanimittam jinagañadharāvaliyā savvesiṁ ca jināņaṁ samosaraņāņi parikahijjanti.
In the Cūrņi the biography of Mahāvīra is followed by the exposition of the sthavirāvali. The biographies of intermediate tirtharkaras are not explained there.
On the basis of these two expositions, we can arrive at the conclusion that the paryuşaņākalpa was the basic subject matter of the adhyayana. The biography of Mahāvīra and the list of sthaviras were added at the time of the Council held
1 Daśāśrutskandha Cūrni, folio 2:
kataram suttam? daśão kappo vavahāro ya. katarāto uddhrtam ? ucyate-paccakkhāņapuvvão. 2 Daśāśrutaskandha-niryukti gāthā 1:
vandami bhaddabāhum, päiņam carima sayala suyanānim /
suttassa kärgamisim, dasăsu kappe ya vavahäre // 3 Daśāśrutaskandha, mülaniryukti cūrni, folio 63. 4 Ibid, mūlaniryukti cūrni, folio 65.
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