Outline of Avasyaka Literature

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

Page 41

Introductory essay and tools by Nalini Balbir
quasi-canonical work in Jaina Śaurasenī Prakrit, are quoted and expanded with illustrative narratives (see Introduction above). The main version used by Leumann was that of (Brahma) Nemidatta's Ārādhanākathākośa to which he had access through two Strasbourg mss.: S 368 (described in Tripathi, Catalogue, Serial No. 222, shelfmark "Wickersheimer 4453"; paper, 272 folios, dated V.S. 1882) and S 323 (described ibidem, Serial No. 223, shelfmark "Wickersheimer 4406", incomplete; paper, 61 folios). One of Leumann's unpublished Notebooks (Plutat 1998: No. 335) contains a table of contents of Nemidatta's works with indications of the number of
verses in each story and reference to parallel versions in the Svetambara tradition. He also had access to Prabhācandra's collection (see Introduction above and Plutat 1998: Nos. 373-374), but not to Hariṣena's Bṛhatkathākosa (9th cent.; in verses; ed. Upadhye 1943). The purpose of "story 22" is to demonstrate that belief in a very simple and condensed teaching is sufficient to guarantee one's salvation (see Osier 2007).
p. 6 [316] The unpublished additions to the Übersicht (Plutat 1998: No. 180) quote the text of "IV 8a" (= Mūlācāra X 122a): jayam care, jayam citthe, jayam āse, jayam sae and mention the Buddhist parallel as found in the Itivuttaka (Ed. p. 120,9f.): yatam care, yatam titthe, yatam acche, yatam saye.
p. 6ff. [339ff.] For the Digambara complex of the Kriyākalāpa Leumann used several Strasbourg manuscripts, which are described with extracts as Serial Nos. 83 to 88 in Tripathi, Catalogue. He also used two Poona mss. "P XX 481" (complete) and "P XII 1046" (pariccheda II only), for which see Plutat 1998: No. 337.
p. 9 [4a Note*] Jacobi recognized that what is called vedhaya is a specific form of metrical pattern which is used in descriptive passages (varnaka). He collected and analysed those which are found in three Jaina canonical texts: 1) the Aupapātikasūtra, 2) the Kalpasūtra and 3) the Jñātadharmakathā in his study "Indische Hypermetra und hypermetrische Texte", Indische Studien 17, 1885, pp. 389-441. Since then, several other such passages have been identified, for example by Leumann in the Praśnavyakaraṇa (see the index of the Übersicht s.v. vedhaya) or by Schubring in his edition of the Tandulaveyāliya (Mainz, 1970). This pattern is also found in Buddhist literature: Leumann refers here to the Kuṇāla-Jātaka (536), for which see the Pāli Text Society edition by W.B. Bollée (reprinted with additions in 2009). See further A. Mette, "Vedhas in Lalitavistara and Divyāvadāna. Beschreibungen des schönen Körpers in Sanskrit und Prakrit", Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 17, 1973, pp. 21-42 and H. Bechert, "Alte Veḍhas im Pali-Kanon. Die metrische Struktur der buddhistischen Bekenntnisformel', in Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, 1988, No. 4, pp. 1-14.
pp. 11ff. [5 18ff.] Note the identification of metres in these pages, where the three components (A, B, C) of the Kriyakalapa are analysed, and see the list of abbreviations above. "Metrics was at a time a favourite study of mine", writes Leumann in a letter to Vijayendrasūri dated December 28, 1928 (p. 148). He contributed several articles to this area of Indian studies (see Kleine Schriften p. XXXVI-XXXVII for references).
p. 24 [944] "Śrītilaka" or Tilakācārya is a Sanskrit commentator on the Avaśyakaniryukti from the 12th century. Leumann knew it through the manuscript "Br 2102" = London ms. kept in the then British Museum: see Balbir, Sheth, Tripathi 2006, Serial
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