Book Title: Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra
Author(s): G C Tripathi, Ashokkumar Singh
Publisher: Bhogilal Laherchand Institute of Indology
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164 Studies in Umāsväti
methodology and aim of his approach - 'Tattvārtha-sūtrapadavivaraṇam kriyate' and this he has achieved.
Coming to the Kannada commentaries, there are about thirty in number out of which only two are earlier and the rest are twentieth century works. Of the Kannada glosses the earliest was authored by Divākaraṇandi-Bhaāraka-Munindra alias Divakarandi-Siddhanthadeva [c. 1020-85]. He completed the work Tattvärtha-sūtrānugata-karṇāa-laghu-vṛtti, a Kannada concise gloss on the Tattvārthasūtra in the year C.E. 1060 at Hombuja, a holy piligrimage centre in Shimoga district.
The Kannada commentator, Divakarananandi-vrathinātha was one of the greatest of preceptors of Karnataka in the eleventh century. Eight inscriptions from different places and two poems of different authors have extensively praised the adept Divakaranandi with which a hagiography of the ācārya can be reconstructed [EC. II (R) 135 (117) AD 1123. ibid, 485 (351) EC.V (R) KR Nagara 22 (iv ye 23). c. 11th century; ibid. 23 (iv ye 24) AD 1100; ibid. 26 (iv ye 27). c. 11-12th century; EC. VI (R) KR pete. 3 (iv kp 3) AD1118; EC. VII (R) SK.136. AD 1062; EC.VIII (OLD) Nagara 58. AD 1062; ibid, Nagara] an abode of śāstras, a crest-jewel of philosophy, bearer of splendid virtues; he had proficiency in grammar, logic and philosophy. He was possessed of the five mahākalyāņas, the eight mahā-prātihāryas, the thirty four atisayas and was well versed in both siddhāntas. His vṛtti in Kannada in ten chapters to the Tattvarthasūtra, (AD 1060) opens with the following śloka:
natvā jineśvaram vīram vakṣye karṇāa-bhāṣayā tattvārtha-sūtra sūtrārtham mandabudhyanurodh/
and explains that the Gṛddhapicchācārya has at the outset saluted the Arhatparameśvara-paramabhaāraka, as a benediction to his Mokṣaśāstra and commences the gloss with the usual well-known sloka of mokṣa-margasya netāram bhettāram karma-bhūbhṛtām. Divākaranandin has quoted
