Book Title: Rushibhashit Sutra
Author(s): Vinaysagar, Sagarmal Jain, Kalanath Shastri, Dineshchandra Sharma
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
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about a Metteya who is believed to be the Ajit Buddha of the future fifth Kalpa. He has been mentioned in the Anagat-vamsh of Mahavamsh. Suttanipatal48 also has one Arhat Metteya who was a friend of Tissa. But it is difficult to state as to what connection Metejja Bhayali of Rishibhashit had with Metteya of Buddhist tradition. Buddhist tradition also mentions one Bhaddali Ther. Although there is literal similarity between Bhagali and Bhaddali, it is difficult to establish any similarity between the two.
14. BAHUK The fourteenth chapter of Rishibhashit149 contains compilation of the preachings of Bahuk. Besides Rishibhashit Bahuk has also been mentioned in Sutrakritang;150 Sutrakritangchurni, 151 and commentary on Sutrakritang written by Sheelankacharya. 152 However, we do not get any information about the life history of Bahuk in all these works. Sutrakritang mentions Bahuk alongwith other Rishis like Nami, Narayan, Asit-deval, Dvaipayan, and Parashar. It says that, recognised in preachings of Arhat, this Bahuk Rishi attained liberation inspite of drinking water infested with living organisms. Sutrakritangchurni clearly states that his mention is found in Rishibhashit and that he attained liberation inspite of living in jungles and consuming vegetables, seeds, and cold water. This confirms that the Bahuks mentioned in Rishibhashit and Sutrakritang are same. But non of these works detail his life history.
Rishimundal-vritti is also silent about his life, as such nothing much can be said about his life history. According to Sthanangsutra, the tenth chapter of Prashnavyakaran-dasha was about Bahuk. Although the available editions of Prashnavyakarandasha do not contain these chapters; I have explained in one of my articles elsewhere that this chapter must have been a part of the oldest edition of Prashnavyakaran and it must have contained the preachings of Bahuk.
The central theme of the preachings of Bahuk in Rishibhashit is that if correct information is presented with incorrect thoughts, it is not authentic; infact the meaning of this statement is that if view point or thought process is impure, the evident activity, even
Rishibhashit : A Study 173
