Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

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

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76 Studies in Umāsvāti
has in influx that is samparāyika and akaṣāya (yoga) has an influx that is īryāpatha, which have been translated, respectively, as 'mundane inflow' and 'transient inflow', 'long-term inflow (bondage)' and 'instantaneous inflow (bondage)' and that 'which extends transmigration' and that 'which prevents or shortens it'.24 Or, as explained in the commentaries, īryāpatha bandha is that in which there is the binding of karma in the first moment, the experiencing of it in the second moment, and the disassociation of it from the soul in the third moment.25
One of the reasons that Johnson believes these terms were introduced by Umāsvāti here is the contradiction, as noted also by Ohira and K.K. Dixit, between iryāpatha bandha in the absence of kaṣāyas and the inclusion of the term iryāpatha kriyā in a list of twenty-five activities (kriyās), found in the bhāṣya that are associated with samparāyika, or long term bondage.26 Johnson raises a valid question, 'What then is its meaning (i.e. of īryā-patha kriyā) in Tattvārthasūtra 6.6 where it appears among the list of kriyas which give rise to samparāyika karma. If the meaning is the same, the two sūtras contradict each other'.27 In other words, 'how can this be included in a list of samparāyika karma/asrava, when it is apparently of the other type of asrava/ karma-iryāpatha?'28 "This incompatibility of Tattvärthasūtra 6.5 with 6.6 indicates that Umāsvāti is attempting to run together two different categories or list, one developed later than the other (i.e. one containing the term 'īryāpatha' at an earlier date and with a different meaning)'.29 Since the term 'īryā' is found also in Tattvärtha Sūtra 9.2 as one of the samitis in the sense of 'care in walking', which is one of the ways to stop the inflow of karmic matter (asrava nirodha), the original meaning of iryāpatha was 'care in walking' and only at a later date acquired the general meaning of 'short term karma'. 30
Thus, Johnson bases his theory of Umasvati's introduction of kaṣāya into the process of karmic bondage on two assumptions: that kaṣāya is rarely mentioned in the earliest Śvetambara texts,