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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
FOREWORD
though the third and fourth classes are identical there is nevertheless difference in the order in the first two classes which are named as Mantra and Agama, respectively.
In the fśvarasamhită 1 again the Pañcarátra literature is divided into two broad classes as Divya and Munibhäşita or as Revealed and Traditional. The prominent among the Divya class are considered 2 to be three, namely, the Sättvata, Pauşkara and the Jayakhya called as the three jewels of the Pāñcarătra literature. Utpala, in the 19th century, quotes profusely from all these three and reverentially mentions them with a Šri prefixed to their names, as Sri-Pauşkarāyām, ŚriSättvatāyām and Sri-Jayāyām. But their claim to consider these Samhitās as Divya or Revealed by God is hardly tenable, nor the reverential mention of Utpala is in any way helpful in establishing their high antiquity, because as will be shown in the sequel these works of the highest antiquity cannot under any circumstances go back beyond the middle of the fifth century A. D.
Amongst the more recent authorities Dr. Schrader 3 has made an attempt to classify the whole of the Páñcarătra literature under three heads as under :
1. The Original Samhitas (North Indian).
1. वासुदेवेन यत्प्रोकं शास्त्रं भगवता स्वयम् ।
अनुष्टुप्छन्दोबद्धेन समासव्यासभेदतः ।। तथैव ब्रह्मरुदेन्द्रप्रमुखैश्च प्रवर्तितम् । लोकेष्वपि च दिव्येषु तदिव्यं मुनिसत्तमाः ॥ ब्रह्मरुद्रमुखैर्देवै ऋषिभिश्च तपोधनैः । स्वयं प्रणीतं यच्छास्त्रं तज्ज्ञेयं मुनिभाषितम् ॥
HEM. 39. I, 54-56. 2. erradi asas da felej a ada al
gangia fama...... सात्वतायं त्रिकं चैतद्वयापकं मुनिसत्तमाः ॥
fuifTM. 87. 1, 64-66. 3. Op. Cit. p. 19.
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