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78: Śramana, Vol 62, No. 3, July-September 2011
as an aid to the memory of the teachers in their oral interpretation of the sacred texts."
Nijjutti was followed by Bhāṣya, a name given to a new type of explanatory literature written in Prakrit verses; and Cuņņi, a designation for a special type of such literature written in Prakrit, sankrit mixed and peculiar to the Jainas alone. Bhāṣya and Cuņņi, in turn, gave rise to descriptive types of explanatory literatures written in Sanskrit on Prakrit texts known as Tīkā and Vṛtti. M.Winternitz infers the same." It may also be noted that there is intermixture of some of the verses of the Bhasa with those of the Nijjuttīs. For example, some verses belonging to its Bhāsa are also seen in the Avassayanijjuttī. Similar is the case with Dasaveyāliyanijjutti and Kappanijjutti in which some verses of their respective Bhāsas have been incorporated in the corresponding Nijjuttīs.'12 Besides, a work like Pañcakappa seems to have been carved out both from the Kappanijjutti and Kappabhāsa as it consists of gathās taken from the Nijjutti and Bhasa on the Kappasuyam respectively. "Under these circumstances" remarks Prof. Kapadia13 almost all the extant Nijjuttīs and Bhāsas may be defined as- "Nijjuti contains verses really belonging to it and some of the corresponding Bhasa consists of verses which legitimately belong to it, and, in addition it has some verses of the relevant Nijjutti as well; but the former exceed the latter in number."
That Nijjuttis and Bhāsas, i.e. versified commentaries on the canonical texts and this common feature of the Nijjutti and Bhāsa literature, i.e. being composed in Prakrit verses, became, instrumental for their intermixture is explicit enough from the foregoing discussion.
It may be noted that Bhāsas are, very likely, older than the Cunnis. Bhasa is called Gāhā, while Cuņņi is known as Paribhāsā. Cuņņis were written at least on twenty Agamic texts, in some cases, there being two Cunnis. As for example, Niśīha and Jiyakappa possess two Cunnis each. Jinadasa Gaņi, the author of Nisihavisesacuņņi
