________________ Isibhasiyaim : 237 several libraries, but the individual lists of Jesalmer, Limdi, and the former Deccan College of Poona do not contain it. Thus, attention was necessarily roused when in 1927 at Indore an unpretentious pamphlet (43 pages, price 3 annas) appeared under the title "Srimadbhih prtyekabuddhair bhasitani Rsi-bhasittasutrani". It contains the text following below, and, as addenda, two Samgahani, which probably had been handed down together with it, for a long time, and in which the names of the Rsis? (6 gahas), and the catch-words of their utterances (4 gahas) as well as the above-mentioned quotations from Thana, Samavaya, and Pakkhiya with their commentaries, are put together. That we have the old Isibhasiyaim before us, cannot be doubted. Numerous, indisputably genuine reminiscences in language and style link the work up with the Ayara', the Sayagadathe Uttarajjhayana, and the Dasaveyalia, the seniors of the canon. Just Leumann (loc. cit. p. 1) compares the Avasyaka, on account of its daily utilization, with the Lord's Prayer, one might liken the latter four texts, in view of their importance, at least for the Svetambara Church, to the four Gospels, and add the Isibhasiyaimas an apocryphical fifth one, just as at the side of the original Gospels more than one apocryphical Gospels were placed. According to brahmanical model, the Jainas use the word rsi in the sense of muni; in ecclesiastic names too either appears as well as the other, cp. Candra-rsi. In the Isibhasiyain, however, a special meaning intrudes, since the speakers of the text are considered as pratyeka-buddhas, and also appear as such in tradition, just as the title of our printed pamphlet and the colophon of our MS. too are composed accordingly. The case of the Isimandala (pagarana), which will have to be referred to repeatedly later is similar. The idea of a pratyeka-buddha, i.e. a man who is arrived at the highest knowledge by himself, like the buddha, but unlike the later, did not form a community or school, has proved very useful for purposes of propaganda. It made it possible to claim for the Jaina faith men how originally stood aloof from the latter. Of this possibility, the author of our text has made good use by introducing number of names of vedic
