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Among the manuscripts of the Kalpasūtra that are available to us, the one belonging to the 'Sri Santinatha Tāḍapatriya Bhandara' at Khambhat is the oldest. This was written in V.S. 1247. In this manuscript the descriptive passages concerning the fourteen dreams are totally absent. Similarly, among the six manuscripts that I have carefully utilised for my research, the 'ga' and 'cha' have a quite different, and very shortened descriptive portion related to the dreams, while in others the current description of the dreams is available word for word. In this way, three different versions of the fourteen dreams have come before me. The author of the curni and the authors of the tippana who followed him are silent about the descriptive part of dream. They do not explain a single word from the descriptive part. This certainly creates a doubt about the originality of the descriptive part. But another question in this context arises from the statement "tae pam sa tisala khattiyäni ime eyärüve orāle coddsa mahasumine päsittä pam paḍibuddha" that immediately follows the mention of the fourteen dreams on the awakening of Trisala ksatriyani after seeing them. In other words, the reference kṣatriyāṇī to the particular dreams and their greatness raises the possibility of some sort of description of the dreams in the text that preceded the passage quoted here. But until it is found in other old manuscripts, it is difficult to ascertain the exact nature of the description that might have been there. We have certainly a doubt about the originality of the descriptive part. Even then it should be noticed that the current descriptive part, howsoever later, must not be considered less than at least a thousand years old.1
From the above consideration we can easily arrive at the conclusion that the paryuşaṇakalpa was compiled in a number of stages. It is, however, a problem whether the text complied after the Council of Devarddhigani can be included in the corpus of the Agamas. If the status of Agama were granted to sutras that were compiled in later times, it will be a difficult task to draw a line of demarcation between the Agamas and the later literature. From this viewpoint the status of an Agama cannot be accorded to the paryuşaṇakalpa as a whole. This is why we have included it in an appendix to the Daśäśrutaskandha.
The Principal Commentaries
1. Daśáśrutaskandha-niryukti; skandha-vrtti.
2. Daśāśrutaskandha-curņi; 3. Daśâśruta
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7. 8. KALPA AND VYAVAHARA
Nomenclature
Both these are Chedasutras. The words paryuṣaṇakalpa, prakalpa and kalpa are very closely related. In the medieval period, Paryusaṇakalpa passed as "Kalpasara". Probably this is why the word Brhatkalpa was used for the 1 Kalpasūtra, Introduction written by Muni Punyavijayaji, p. 9-10.
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