Sambodhi 2014 Vol 37

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 25

17 Vol. XXXVII, 2014 The Works of Vacaka Umasvati 17 "Na bhavati dharmah srotuh sarvasy=aikantata hita-sravanat bruvato-'nugraha-buddhaya vaktus-tv-ekantato bhavati ||" (santi suri, p.19) And, "Prag-lokabindusare sarv-aksara sannipata paripathitah | dhrun-dharan-artho dhatu-stad-artha-yagad-bhavati-dharmmah ||| Durgati-bhaya-prapate patantam-abhayakara-durlabha-trane | samyak-carito ya syad-dharayati tatah smoto dharmah |!" (santi suri, pp.183-84) A few other verses quoted in the name of 'Vacaka' are also encountered in santi suri's Vrtti and in some other sources. Some of these, from the point of view of content and style, could be attributed to Umasvati; however, they are not always composed in the Arya metre so much favoured by him in Anustubh, a metre he secondarily had employed in his composition; hence here these have not been taken into major consideration20. A few other verses that are composed in arya, which may be likened to Umasvati's manner of writing, but could not with confidence be ascribed to any of his aforenoted works, have also been traced21. The style of what is reflected in all those "quoted verses" I cited in the main text of this paper, I may repeat, is clearly, indeed genuinely, of Umasvati. What is significant, as this survey demonstrates, more number of works of that illustrious author apparently were available, till the medieval period, to the Svetambara writers. A diligent search for further verses/prose passages or phrases within the hundreds of quotations in Sanskrit encountered in several different classes of the Nirgrantha commentarial literature (particluarly of the Svetambara persuation) may bring to light some more verses attributable to this erudite ancient Nirgrantha savant22. Verses connected with the Bhasya of the Tattvarthadhigama Sutra The opening and the closing karikas of the selfsame Sutra with its bhasya are too well-known. Siddhasena gani has very briefly commented on most of these verses. After studying the 32 karikas of the closing part of the work, Bansidhar Bhatt thus observed : "Vss. 1-32 (Section "B") are possibly the only remainder of the complete metrical commentary on the Sutras, running parallel to the Bhasya (which is in prose throughout.)"23 I largely concur with Bhatt except with one qualification that, there are within the main corpus of