________________
Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
167
developed by the early Jaina teachers with a view to explaining the canonical texts. To facilitate oral transmission, they came to be composed in the form of memorial verses with catch-words that helped the teacher in instructing and explaining the holy scriptures. Actually, the Niryukti is defined as that which contains a decided or intended meaning of the terms contained in it. Alsdorf points out that the most prominent feature of the Niryukti "is the so-called niksepa, no doubt the exclusive invention of the Jaina scholars and their most original contribution to scholastic research. The niksepa is a method of investigation to which any word or concept can be subjected by applying the various points of views for getting the multi-faced knowledge of the same. Such being the nature of the Niryukti, it did not much help in understanding the meaning of the corresponding canonical text. Hence other explanatory verses were, al later stages, inserted or added. The result was the emergence of the Bhasya, the next class of the Jaina cxegetical literature. The available Niryuktis are ten in number and tradition attributed them to Bhadrabahu I (B.C.300). But Leumann, after deep study, has attributed them to the Bhadrabahu of A.D.100' though a group of scholars now-a-days take the bulk of them to be postcrior to the Valtabhi Council II (c.A.D.454/457 0. better A.D.503/516).'0 The Niryuktis have not been written on all the canonical texts but only on the most important ones, those that formed the nucleus of the canonical material and required that kind of explanations. They contain, on the average, a few hundred verses. But the Avasyaka-niryukti has the largest number of verses and it is said to be complete and scientifically presented.
As noted above, from the later additions and insertions of the surther explanatory verses into the body of the Niryukti, there emerged the Bhasya type of exegetical literature. This phenomenon has been explained by different scholars in diffring ways. I would rather quote hcte H.R.Kapadia : “Nijjutti contains verses really belonging to it and some of the corresponding Bhāsa too; but the former preponderate over the latter. Similarly Bhāsa consists of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
