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Paramatma-prakala
are many striking agreements such as almost identical passages, the same quotations, similar illustrations and parallel method of discussion.1 So there is no doubt that the same Brahmadeva has commented on these two works. Brahmadeva always gives a literal explanation of the dohas sometimes without repeating the words of the text. His aim is to explain the contents, and in only one or two places he explains grammatical forms. After the literal explanation, he gives some additional discussion rather in a heavy style; and here and there he quotes early authors. He is quite at home in the application of various Nayas or view-points: and his enthusiasm for Niścaya Naya and naturally spiritual knowledge is very great. The commentary on P.-prakata is not heavily loaded with technical details about Jaina dogmas like that on Dravyasamgraha, whose contents were mainly responsible for this. But for this commentary of Brahmadeva. P.-prakasa would not have been so popular.
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Jayasena and Brahmadeva-The analysis, introductory remarks, the closing discussions and some other features of Brahmadeva's commentary remind us of Jayasena's commentaries. Brahmadeva closely follows Jayasena with whose commentaries he appears to be thoroughly conversant. Some discussions in the commentary of P.-prakasa are almost the same as those in the commentary of Jayasena on Pañcastikāya; compare, for for instance, P.-prakāśa on II. 21 with Pañcāstikāya on 23ff; Pp. on II 33 with P. on 152; and Pp. on II. 36 with P. on 146.
Brahmadeva's Date-Nowhere Brahmadeva informs us the age when he composed his works. 1) Daulatarama (2nd half of the 18th century A.D.) bases his Hindi commentary on Brahmadeva's Sk. tika, ii) Javaharlal has noted that Subhacandra, in his commentary on Kattigeyanuppakkha (A. D. 1556 borrows much from Brahmadeva's Vrtti of Dravyasamgraha. 11) Balacandra Maladhare plainly refers to Brahmadeva's commentary; but the date of Balacandra cannot be settled on independent grounds. iv) In the Jesalmere Bhandara there is a paper Ms. of Brahmadeva's Vrtti of Dravyasamgraha copied in samvat 1485, i.e., A.D. 1428, at Mandava in the reign of Rai Sri Candaraya. Thus these external evidences put a later limit to his period that he flourished earlier than 1428 A.D. We shall what chronological material we get from his works. i) Taking a review of the various quotations+
1 Compare, for instance, Dravya-samgraha-vṛtti, pp. 53-54 etc, with P. prakasa commentary on II. 21; Ds. p. 63 with Pp. on II. 23; Ds. p. 129 with Pp. on I. 9; Ds. pp. 213-14 with Pp. on I 68; Ds. p. 216-16 with Pp. on II. 99, also II. 94.
2 For instance see his commentary on II. 25.
Catalogue of Mss. at Jeselmere, (p. 49. No. 15), G.O.S. Vol. XXI, Baroda 1923. There are some 92 quotations (only a few mentioning either the author or the work) of which I have been able to trace the sources of some 50. I am very thankful to my friend Pt. Jugalkishore who kindly traced for me about a dozen quotations. A list of these quotations is given in the Appendix.
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