Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

Author(s): G C Tripathi, Ashokkumar Singh
Publisher: Bhogilal Laherchand Institute of Indology

Page 177

Tattvārthasūtra Commentaries of Karnataka 167 There are more Sanskrit verses in Bālacandradeva than in Divākaranandi. Bālacandradeva's Tattvārtha-pradīpike opens with a Sanskrit śloka which is the same as in Divākarañandi's work.
A comparative study of the Kannada commentaries of Karnataka, particularly with Pujyapāda's Sarvārthasiddhi is a desideratum. While preparing this paper I made a humble attempt to take up the work myself, but in the course I found that my knowledge of philosophy pertaining to the subject is not sufficient to do proper justice to the thesis. Hence after knowing my limitations I did not proceed further; but, some competent person should take up this work.
After twelfth century, it is suprising that not even a single commentary has been written on Tattvārthasūtra; the sole exception is that of an unknown author's Tattvārthasūtravyākhyā the date of which is not known. A microfilm copy (No. N. 1150] is well preserved in the Institute of Kannada Studies of Mysore University; I have not seen this microfilm.
But from the beginning of this century, nearly thirty different editions have appeared, but the heartening numerical figure is deceptive! Except four or five of the above Kannada works, the rest are popular bazar editions of no consequence; either they are reprints or just ordinary reproductions.
It is Padmarāja Šāstry, son of Brahmasūripandita of Chāmarājanagara, a district headquarters in Karnataka, who edited the original text with a commentary in modern Kannada language, for the first time in this century, in 1914. He made a sincere attempt to give the gist of each sūtra in simple spoken Kannada; it contains adhikarana, avataraņika, pratipadārtha and tātparya.
Padmarāja Šāstry, in his introduction of two pages to Mokşaśāstra as he names Tattvārthasūtra, has this traditional appeal to the reader— 'this is a sacred text to which should be bestowed the same respect extended to deva, god, guru, ascetic and śāstra; should be recited everyday only after taking bath;