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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
NOTES
285
the 2nd or the 3rd century A.D. cannot be traced either in Indian literature or in Indian epigraphy prior to the beginning of the Christian era. The Petakôpadesa and the Netti-Pakaraņa are the two extra-canonical Pāli companion works ascribed to Mahākaccāna. Of them, the former may be shown to have been quoted by name in Buddhaghoşa's Atthasālint,' and the latter may be shown to have been presupposed by the Milinda-Pañha and Buddbag hoşa's Atthasālini. Prof. Hardy, the editor of the Netti-Pakarana, fixes the 2nd century A.D. as the date of composition of this work. We have taken these two Pali works with the ArthaŠāstra because, in our opinion, the Artha-Sastra, as we now have it, cannot be dated earlier than the 2nd century A.D. The concluding chapter of the Artha-Šāstra deals with 32 Tantra-yuktis representing the terminology of textual methodology. Curiously enough, a precisely similar treatment has been accorded to the same number of Tantra-yuktis in the Susruta-Samhita (Uttaratantra, Ch. LXV) which is, in its extant form, a compilation of the 2nd or the 3rd century A.D., while the total number of the Tantrayuktis has been increased to 34 in the Caraka. Samhitā.3 So far as Pāli literature is concerned, the Netti-Pakaraṇa and the Petakôpadesa are the two well-known treatises on textual methodology. It will be noticed that the twofold convention combined in the opening verses characterises also the Mādhyamika-Kārikā of Nāgārjuna who was associated with one of the Sātavāhana rulers :
Anirodham anutpādam anucchedam aśāśvatam Anekártham anānártham anāgamam anirgamam # Yaḥ pratitya-samutpādam prapañcópašamam sivam Desayāmāsa sambuddhas tam vande vadatām varam #
(3) The Barhut stone-railing which is a purely Suriga architecture bears two sculptural representations of Asokan pillars. 4 There are instances of imitation of Asokan pillars in Sunga architecture among the ruins of Buddhist monasteries and monuments at Sarnath. The pillars
1. Atthasālini, p. 165.
2. See the characterisation of saddha in the Netti (p. 28), the same in the Milinda (pp. 34 foll.), and the quotation of both in the Atthasalini, pp. 119.120. See, also, how the simple characterisation of sati by apilāpana-lakkhanā satîti in the Netti has been elaborated in the Milinda (pp. 37-38).
3. Caraka Samhitā, Siddhisthāna, Ch. XII. 4. Cunningham's Mahâbodhi, Pl. III.
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