Study of Tattvarthasutra with Bhasya

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 14

CHAPTER 1
WHICH VERSION OF THE TEXT IS THE ORIGINAL!.
Sec. 1. MSS OF THE T.S.
Since numerous MSS of the T.S. are available (the Jinaratnakosa counts 39 entries), it is incumbent upon us to begin with their survey with a view to finding if any external evidences can be therefrom established to solve our problem, "Which version of the text is the original ?! To make a general remark of the MSS condition of the T.S., the Digambara text as well as the Svetambara text accompanied by the Bhāşya are well preserved in the codices without damage, however curiously enough, the Svetāmbara copies unaccompanied by the Bhāsya so far consulted are without exception polluted by the Digambara apborisms. Does it at all imply that the Digambara recension of the text was the archetype from which the Svetāmbara recension was dervied ? And how did this strange phenomenon come to occur ? These questions remain to be explained.
Investigated below are the codices of the Western version of the T.S. with and without the Bhāşya (the Southern version is excluded from consultation as it is generally well preserved) located in the following institutions : L. D. Institute of Indology (LDII), Ahmedabad; Hemacandrācārya Jhāna Mandir (HJM), Pattan; San. ghavi Pāda (SP), Pattan; Limbadi Jaina jñāna Bhandar (LJJB), Limdi (MSS were sent therefrom); and the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Poona. Those
examined include two palm leaf MSS, one of which is dated 1303 V. S. (no. 8) and the other (no. 9) appearing to be another copy of the same, which lacks the first folio and remains in the worst possible condition that it may fall into pieces sooner or later. The rest are the paper MSS ranging from the 16th to the 20th ceutury V. S. Those in Gujarat area mainly consist of the Svetāmbara versions and those at Poona mostly of the Digambara versions.
The aphorisms of the T. S. were likely not numbered originally, because they frequently exhibit themselves without an indication of the sequential number in the codices, the phenomenon of which is commonly observed in the texts of Siddhasena and Haribhadra, and in the text Sarvarthasiddhi. When enumerated, the a phorisms are often misnumbered, deliberately or otherwise, for instance, sometimes