Outline of Avasyaka Literature

Author(s): Ernst Leumann, George Baumann
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 25

Introductory essay and tools by Nalini Balbir
Philosophical matters are at the heart of the Avasyaka literature, especially as it is represented in the Viseșāvasyaka-bhāsya. This is illustrated in the section “Further specimens from the contents of the Višeşāvaśyaka-bhāsya" (p. 106ff.) where large sections of text are translated. The concept of perception is dealt with in the Avaśyaka-niryukti (and the Nandīsūtra), as forming one of the five types of knowledge. But it is developed into a complex and full-fledged theory in the expanded version of Jinabhadra (p. 106ff.). Even more intricate is the discussion of the visualization both in its own right and in relation to knowledge. The demonstration aims at underlying the history of ideas, for the opinion of authorities such as Jinabhadra's Bhāsya is different from those expressed in the canonical Bhagavatīsätra, and involves discussion of the old phrase jāņai pāsai / jāņai na pāsai. Another case concerns the "doctrine of permutation" (German: "Permutationslehre"; p. 114f.) as expressed in a stanza of the Bhāsya. It shows the fundamental character of mathematical reasoning in the elaboration of Jaina thought.
This and the following parts of the book show on the basis of precise cases how Jinabhadra's Bhāsya in particular is a fundamental work for the development of ideas. The examples considered by Leumann, some at length, cover areas of epistemology and also of ethics. The "granthi-doctrine" developed in a set of verses common to Jinabhadra's Bhāsya and to the Kalpa-bhāsya (p. 115) is aptly labelled a "chapter of religious psychology". It is followed by a translation of the Bhāsya passage dealing with the difference between the layman and the monk in connection with the performance of sämāyika (p. 116.). The conception of space and time" is central to the Jaina doctrine. Understanding it is necessary in connection with the karma-theory and the fate of beings caught in the samsāra. Moreover, this topic is an example where the Jainas have constructed their own ideas and where the Avaśyaka literature has contributed in its own way. The discussion, which touches on cosmology, draws on this corpus and is supplemented by other texts from both the Svetāmbara and the Digambara traditions. In Leumann's view the twelve-spoked wheel of time with six descending and six ascending periods, typical of the Jainas, is an expansion of the basic pattern of four aeons as found in Manu (p. 119). Whether this idea is acceptable or not remains to be seen. But one should not forget that the "common Indian" doctrine of the world aeons is also known to the Jainas. Here, Leumann resorts to a parallel from the field of language, where doublets can coexist without difficulty (p. 120). The "doctrine of bodies" expressed in the last part of Jinabhadra's Bhāsya is "a Jaina recast of the fairly common all Indian" doctrine (p. 120). Its inclusion in the Übersicht is justified because its comparative investigation, traced from the canonical Bhagavati-sūtra to Jinabhadra's work, shows how it has evolved differently within the Avasyaka corpus itself (p. 120ff.).
The phrase "catechism-like role" (German: "katechismus-artige Rolle”, p. 1) applied to the Āvaśyaka is one of Leumann's trouvaille. One can always criticize the transposition of a term or phrase valid in the Christian tradition to another religious tradition or comparisons of faiths so different as the Jaina and the Catholic (of which see one example p. 27). Nevertheless, an evocative term is always welcome. This one suggests the central place of textual units forming the "Avasyaka" in daily religious practice, of the mendicant as well as of the layman. It underlines the interactive link between the parties involved in the performance of the Avasyaka ritual as expressed in the various sections of the Avasyaka-sūtra, a feature rightly emphasized by Leumann through the attention he pays to the rhetoric of the formulas used by the person who utters them (in the first person) and those which are used in the answers
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