Shravakachar of Vasunandini

Author(s): Signe Kirde
Publisher: Signe Kirde

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3.2 Contemplation
3 SELF-PURIFICATION
of the principles of Jainism (Tattvas) are topics of Jain contemplation. Bhatt 1994:182 proposes that the topics of contemplation derive from the ancient loga-vicaya ("reflection on the world"). By comparison of the verses Śr (59ff.) with the chapter on loga in KA we could easily attribute Vasunandin's poems in the chosen section to this genre.
According to Handiqui 1949:295 the earliest collection of Anuprekṣās, which is composed in Skt. Ślokas, occurs in the second chapter of Somadeva's Yt. But related themes of contemplation are inserted as strayed verses in Jain narrative literature, too, for instance in the Kuvalaya-mālā, or in the Dānâṣṭa-katha.51. In the Dig. scriptures which are often considered to be the "secondary canon of the Jains" the poems with topics of contemplation that have come down to us are composed mainly in the new Ārya. They definitely belong to a younger layer of Jain literature.52 Outside Jainism related topics are found in the Buddhist Sutta-nipata and in the poems of the Thera-gatha (for example 1127ff.). According to the Jain tradition particular scriptures which are suited well for the study with a preceptor or the self-study, are called Pkt. ajjhayana (Skt. adhyayana / adhyayana) or Skt. sutra. Those verses that are designed for self-study could be memorised daily or at certain times of the religious year of the Jains (kālika).
Since no English standard translations of the Anuvekkhās is available, I refer for the technical terms to the standard literature in English.54 Jainism has always been regarded as a "book religion".55 In Śr (213d) Vasunandin refers to the term uvāsaya'jjhayana, a scripture which contains rules of conduct for the layman.
Moreover, in a reknown commentary of the Digs. the Upasakâdhyayana is
51Cf. Kuvalaya-mālā 98.26-30; II 311, the stories in the commentary of Yt, the stories in the commentary of Prabhacandra on Rk, and the stories and verses in the Dānâṣṭa-kathā 52 See for instance the analysis in Denecke 1922 and in Alsdorf 1966, 1968. Compilations such as Māc, Mul, and KA contain hundreds of memorial verses composed in the new Arya. We find in those poems the kernel of the Jain doctrine.
53 One Buddhist poems illustrates the hardships of houseless monks who have been captured by villains: "I know that nothing is mine, not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow. What can be discriminated, will perish, what should I complain?" (Thera-gāthā, 715, Song of Adhimutto, English translation according to Norman).
54 Schubring, Lehre der Jaina (in English: The Doctrine of the Jainas, 1962); Ratnachandra, Illustrated Ardha-Magadhi Dictionary, 1923; Glasenapp, Die Lehre vom Karman in der Philosophie der Jainas, nach den Karmagranthas dargestellt, 1915 (in English: Doctrine of Karman in Jain Philosophy, 1942); Von Kamptz, Über die vom Sterbefasten handelnden älteren Painna des Jaina-Kanons, 1929; Williams, Jaina Yoga, 1963; Umāsvāmin, Tattvartha-sutra (in English: That Which Is, 1994); Samantabhadra, Ratna-karandakaśravakacāra (English translation by Willem Bollée, 2010).
55 See Bruhn 2003:9. For the term svadhyāya cf. Ts IX.20.
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