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CHAPTER XXIV
DASAVAIKĀLIKA SUTRA (DASAVEYALIYA SUYA)
The Dasaveyaliya Suya1 (Daśavaikālika Sutra) is one of the four mulasūtras of the Svetambara agama. Sejjambhava is said to have been the author of this book which contains in a nutshell tenets of Jainism. This text was originally compiled in order to give his son Manaka the chance of grasping the essence of Jainism within a short period of six months at the end of which he was to die.2 Sejjambhava (Sreyambhava) was the pupil of Prabhava who was the pupil of Jambu. Jambu was the pupil of Sudharman who was Mahavira's immediate disciple. The year 98 after the death of Mahavira may be counted as the date when the Dasaveyāliyasuya was written. The gist of the agama teaching which it gives was thoroughly mastered by Sejjambhava together with the traditional expositions and interpretations. This sutra enunciates the noblest principles of the Jaina faith which emphasizes with equal force right knowledge and right conduct as its constituents. Some of the sayings regarding the monastic life contained in this sutta remind us of the sayings in the Buddhist Dhammapada and the Mokṣudharma section of the Santiparva of the Mahabhārata. This text is divided into ten ajjhayanas. The Chapters I-III, V-VIII and X are written entirely in verse. The topics discussed are the following: Flowers, monkhood, conduct, six groups of living beings, search for food, exposition of dharma, purity of speech, restriction to conduct, devotion to discipline and saintship.
In the first chapter we find that religion which is the highest bliss is made up of non-injury, self-restraint and penance. In the second chapter a person can be said to have renounced the world who casts away enjoyments and renounces pleasures which are entirely his own. A monk
1 Vide K. V. Abhyankar, Dasaveyāliya Sutta with the Niryukti, 1932; Prof. A. M. Ghatage, Parallel passages in the Dašavaikälika and the Acārānga (New Indian Antiquary, Vol. I, No. 2, May, 1938); Dasaveyāliya Sutta edited by E. Leumann and translated with introduction and notes by W. Schubring, Ahmedabad, 1932.
2 Sejjambhava was enlightened by the apparition of a picture of the Jina and left his house when his wife was pregnant. She gave birth to a son named Manaka. When the boy was 8 years old, he enquired about his father, and when he came to know that he became an ascetic, he went forth to seek him and became his pupil. As the father knew that his son had only six months more to live, he taught him the Dasaveyāliya within that period. (Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, II, pp. 470-471).
3 Weber, Indische Studien, 17, 77.
