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Introduction
103
his comprehensive grasp of the whole text and his plain remarks on his additional gāthās are not found in Bālacandra's commentary. Comparing their styles, Bāłacandra's Kannada is Sanskrit-ridden and artificial; and its only explanation is that he is rendering into Kannada some Sanskrit commentary. Jayasena closely follows Amộtacandra, and he plainly refers to him more than once; if the commentary of Bālacandra was utilised by Jayasena, he would have certainly referred to it. Bāļacandra has not, so far as I have peeped through the MS. of his commentaries, referred to Amstacandra; possibly he is not aware of any other commentary than that of Jayasena. So Jayasena flourished earlier than Bālacandra; and even Bālacandra, I think, hints the same, when he names his commentary as Tātparya-vrtti and when he says:
dhỉta-ratnatritayam Prabhrta-sūtrānugata-vșttiyami palargam Prū-/ kyta-Karnāțaku-vākyā[p. 108:] rtha-tattva-niścittiyāge nirvartisidem.2 //3.
4. Prabhācandra and his Sarojabhāskara REMARKS ON PRABHĀCANDRA'S COMMENTARY.-A MS. of Pravacanasāra containing the Sk. commentary of Prabhācandra is used for this edition, and the various readings are given at the end;4 it is possible that Prabhācandra might have written commentaries on the remaining two works also of Kundakunda. The name of his commentary is Saroja-bhāskara. As compared with that of Amộtacandra, there is no special profundity in Prabhācandra's commentary. His aim appears to be very modest; he gives a word-for-word explanation of the Prakrit text; and the extent of his exposition is shorter than that of Jayasena with whom he agrees here and there. The Prakrit text which Prabhācandra has before him appears to be somewhat different; but this point can be more definitely settled after consulting some more MSS,, as the one used by me is defective. Of the gāthās which are additional in Jayasena's commentary, Prabhācandra does not include at all III, 17*1-2; and it is just possible that they were not present in the text before him. With regard to gāthā II, 95*4 Prabhācandra remarks 'parināmam ti āgame pratipăditam, subha-payadīnetyādi-gatha-dvayam ūdeyam na bhavati, praksepakatvād iti upeksyatel; it is not clear to what two gāthas he refers, for in Jayasena's com
1 v.l. vrttiyim. 2 v.l.nirvarnisidam. 3 I am thankful to Pt. Bahubali Sharma, Sangli, who kindly lent to me his MS. of Bala
candra's commentaries. It is in old Kannada characters written on modern water-mark paper; it is copied by Bhujabali Anantappa Shastri of Halingali in Saka 1824 ( + 78
1902 A.D.). 4 For the description of this MS. see page 42 at the end; Prabhācandra's commentary opens thus:
Viram pravacanasäram nikhilārtham nirmalam janänandam /
vaksye sukhāvabodham nirvāņa-padam pranamyäham // The concluding colophon runs thus: iti éri Prabhācandradeva-viracite Pravacanasārasarojabhāskare etc.
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