Studies In Umasvati And His Tattvartha Sutra

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

Page 89

Karmic Bondage and Kasāyas 79 at the outset that I do not have any plausible explanation for why this term appears in the listing of sâmparāyika kriyās. In a valid critique of Umāsvāti, K.K. Dixit mentions in his preface to his English translation of Pandit Sukhlaji's commentary on the Tattvārthasūtra, that each of the four causes of sāmparāyika bandha: avrata, kasāya, indriya, and kriyā, are found in various canonical sources. 'Umāsvāti evinces on realization that each of these catalogues had a history of its own, e.g., the Sūtrakstānga, II. Two, discussion on kriyā must belong to a period when no pentad of his was yet formulated while three of his pentads must be so late that no earlier discussion mentioned them—they being only recorded in that catalogue-collection Sthānānga where they must be a recent addition. But in this Umāsvāti was erring in the company of all our old authors who all lacked a sense of history in almost equal measure.34 Thus, there is no way to know the context in which these lists were used in the texts available to Umāsvāti. However, Johnson seems to be right in observing that something is amiss with these two terms. 'Sukhlalji is aware of the problem, but is unable to resolve it,' as he mentions in his commentary that of the kriyās... there is only one—viz. īryāpathakriyā—that is not asrava for a sāmparāyīka karma ... And when all these kriyās are here called āsrava for a sāmparāyika-karma that is done simply because most of them (really, all of them except the īryapathikī) are in fact so'. 35
My first idea as to how this might have been included in this list was to speculate that the terms īryāpatha kriyā and sāmparāyika kriyā might not have been two mutually exclusive terms that resulted in two different types of bondage. A mendicant who was still under the influence of kaşāyas to some degree could still exercise care in walking and so forth and thus perform an īryāpatha kriyā, which would cause sāmparāyika bandha, or karmic bondage that lasted longer than a few moments, while a mendicant who had eliminated all kasāyas performing these same sorts of actions would have instantaneous bondage. However, in all available texts, īryāpatha kriyā is said