Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): D C Sirkar
Publisher: University of Calcutta

Page 96

A. M. SHASTRI
81
bara traditions are unanimous in representing Bhadrabahu of the fourth century B.C. as the possessor of the knowledge of the twelve Angas and fourteen Purvas, the Digambara Pattāvalis alone clearly distinguish him from Bhadrabāhu II who was separated from the former by an interval of about three centucies. Again, the Digambaras do not give to either of these Bhadrabāhus the credit of composing either the nir yuktis or the Bhādrabāhavi Samhitā. On the other hand, the Svetāmbaras clearly mention only one Bhadrabāhu, the śrutakevalin who is said to have passed away 170 years after Mahāvīra's nirvāņa. But while the earlier tradition speaks of him as the author of the Cheda-sūtras only, some late writers credit him with the authorship of the nir yuktis, the Bhādrabāhavi Samhita and the Uvasaggaharapāsa also. The earliest writer to represent him as the author of the niryuktis is Sīlānka who lived in the eighth century A. D. and speaks of him both as niryuktikāra and as caturdaśa-purva-dhara in one and the same breath.5.5 The same belief is re-iterated by some later writers like Sāntisūri, Droņācārya, Maladhāri-Hemacandra, Malayagiri and Kșemakirti.36 But they do not utter a single word about Bhadrabāhu's mastery over astrology. It was left to some late authors of the fourteenth and following centuries to lay stress on this aspect. Nay, we may even aver that an excessive emphasis on this aspect relegates his other religious and literary activities to the background. Thus was brought into being the fully developed personality of Bhadrabāhu which is an article of faith with the generality of the Svetāmbaras today. But this belief involves serious anachronism. The overwhelming internal evidence of the niryuktis themselves leaves no room for doubt that they were composed much later than the fourth century B.C. when the śrutakevalin Bhadrabāhu is reputed to have flourished. To cite only a few illustrations.
35 Anuyoga-dãyinah Sudharmasvāmi-prabhrtayah yāvad=asya bhagavato niryukti-kärasya Bhadr abāhusvåminaś=caturdaśa-purva-dharasy=ācāryo tas=tan sarvăn=iti (Silānka's commentary on the Acârāngasūtra, quoted ibid., p. 4).
36 For citations, see ibid., pp. 4-5..