Note on Hemchandras Abhidhanchintamani and Sanskrit Karmavati

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 19

फेब्रुआरी २०११
१८५
kālāntaravýddhy-ādişu vyavahriyete (p. 485).
The five types of years and months distinguished in the Svetāmbara sources are not unique to them. The five types of years recall the 4+1 systems of measurement of time listed in the beginning of Varāhamihira's Brhatsamhitā where it is said that the astrologer should be caturņām ... mānānām saurasāvana-naksatra-cāndrāņām adhimāsakāvama-sambhavasya ca kāraņābhijñaḥ (II.4). Pkt. sāvana, one of the three designations of the "practical” year and month, corresponds to Skt. sāvana here. This is a Vedic term precisely designating the year of 360 days and nights and the month of 30 days and nights. The word refers to the pressuring of Soma, called savana (from SU-) which, according to the old Vedic ritual, continues for 360 days and constitute the year-long sacrifice.31 The Jaina commentators have clearly recognized this term, which they Sanskritized correctly into savaņa/sāvaņa although they connect it with a different root:
savanam - karmasu preraṇam șū(t) prerane [= Hemacandra, Dhātupātha 5.18; root SU-] iti vacanāt tat-pradhānaḥ samvatsaraḥ savana-samvatsara ity apy
asya nāma (M on SP p. 180).32
The Arthaśāstra distinguishes five types of months with varying durations corresponding to those transmitted in Jaina sources:
trimsad-ahorātraḥ karma-māsaḥ (2.20.47). sārdhaḥ sauraḥ (48). ardha-nyūnaś candra-māsaḥ (49). saptavimśatir naksatra-māsaḥ (50), dvātrimsad balamāsaḥ (51).
“Thirty days and nights make a works month. A half 31. See, for instance, G. Thibaut, Astronomie, Astrologie und Mathematik, Strassburg, 1899 (Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde III,9), S 17. 32. Thus Prakrit dictionaries should have two entries sāvana: 1) corresponding to Skt. sāvana, 2) corresponding to Skt. śrāvana.