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94
Pravacanasara
the sentences, which in turn have made the book; so he is no more the author 3-5. Besides these two works, we have his commentaries on Pañcästikäya (called Tattvapradipika-vyttik), Pravacanasara (called Tattvadipika) and Samayasara (called Atmakhyātiḥ), at the end of which he uniformly mentions his name. Samayasarakalasa is often treated as an independent work of Amṛtacandra and even a Sk. commentary is written on that alone by Subhacandra, but in fact it is a separate compilation of the verses included in his commentary on Samayasära. works are in Sanskrit. It may be asked whether he wrote in Prakrit; possibly he did, for the following reasons: his commentaries indicate that he was a close student of Prakrit; at the close of some MSS. of his commentary on Samayasara one Prakrit gatha is found possibly composed by himself; and lastly Meghavijayagani attributes some Prakrit gåthãs to Amṛtacandra from a Sravakācāra of his composed in Prakrit. One gatha attributed to Amṛtacandra is traced in Phädasi-gāthā,3 about the author of which nothing is known except that he is said to have belonged to Kasthasangha. If Meghavijayaji's attribution is authentic, Amṛtacandra might be the author of Dhädast, and in that case he possibly belonged to Käṣṭhāsangha. If he belonged to Kasthasangha, this might conveniently explain the use of certain words and phrases of Amṛtacandra and the omission of some crucial gathās from Kundakunda's texts; but all this belongs to the domain of conditional conjecture. [p. 99:] HIS SCHOLARSHIP, STYLE ETC.-As a commentator Amṛtacandra's position is really great, because, so far as we know, he is the first commentator on the authoritative works of Kundakunda. He does not aim at verbal explanation, but he wants simply to propound the philosophical contents of the gathãs. Sometimes, however, it is possible to conjecture a particular Prakrit reading from his close paraphrase.5 His zeal for Anckänta logic is very great: that is quite clear from his commentaries and other works. He shows close acquaintance with Digambara as well as Svetambara works. He quotes from Mokkhapahuḍa of Kundakunda. He quotes a Vyavaharastra which appears to be possibly some Śvetambara work; Jayasena not being aware of any such work translates the same by Cirantana-prayaścitta-sutra. He quotes a gatha from Sanmati of Siddhasena. His mastery over Sanskrit idiom is remarkable; his handling of Jaina technical terms is so natural and easy that he does not hesitate even to translate them like ordinary common nouns. He knows the value of pithy remarks and concise exposition; sometimes repetition is seen here and there, and this habit he appears to have contracted from Kundakunda's Samayasara. Sometimes his prose is artificial, though the current of his expression is very forceful. Amrtacandra is more a poet
1 Published under the title Paramadhyatma-tarangini in SJG. No. 15, Calcutta; on Subhacandra see my paper in Annals of the B.O.R.I. vol. XII, ii, p. 132 ff.
2 Prof. Velankar: Catalogue of Sk. & Pk. MSS. in the library of BBRAS, Vols. III-IV, p.
430.
3 Ed. MDJG Vol 13, pp. 161 etc.; it is the 20th gatha that is quoted by Meghavijaya. 4 See p. 50 above and foot-note No. 5 on p. 51.
5 See for instance I, 19 (adimdio), 51 (visamam) etc.
6 Pañcästikäya on gatha 146, p. 212.
7 Samayasara p. 404.
8 Pañcästikäya on gatha 172, p. 251.
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