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[vii]
not yet been definitely settled down in the present day academic circles, upon which depends the final assignment of the date of our text. However, ibe date of the T. S. sometime in the late middle of the 5th century A. D. arrived at from the available external and internal evidences would be the closest approximation in the present state of progress in research. Also on the more reliable epigraphical evidences the traditional date of the Third Valabhi Council based on the date of Mahāvira's nirvāṇa and the currently accepted date of Bhadrabāhu II based on the traditional legend (see also Ch. III. Sec. IV, Pt. 1, (3)) are proposed to be reassigned, even though the final assignment of their decisive dates has to be suspenaded for the want of further evidences which may turn out in the future.
The third proposal is taken up in the final chapter. A his!orical evaluation of the T. S. must be assessed on the basis of 1) Umāsvāti's performance in composing the T.S., 2) Its capacity of influencing the post-Umāsvāti authors, and 3) Its position held in the literary history of the Jainas in the two traditions. The first problem is dealt with in Sec. I while analyzing the mechanism of the T. S., i, e., its structure, source materials and their organization. This clarifies what kinds of problems were in what way posited by Univāti to bring out the innovation of the Agamic concepts and the formulation of new concepts. The second problem becomes self-evident to a great extent while making a survey of the factors of reaction raised to the T. S. in the commentarial works on the conon in Sec. II, and while tracing the further develop nent of certain theoretical problem proposed by Umāsvāti in Sec. III. A series of independent discussions conducted in Sec. III with a view to finding how certain concepts had gone through the stages of evolution by the time of Umāsvāti, how the concepts were handled by Uinăsvati, and how they took the course of develop ment in the immediate post-Umäsväti period in both traditions. In so doing, the obscure imports of ceriain aphorisms and their Bhäş ya expositions come to be clarified. Since the problerns raised in the T. S. are many and the concerned literary materials are inexhaustible, the inquiries made in Secs. II-III within a limited scope are impossible to cover them all, of which improvement is left wide open to the future, The third problem is treated in the final section by way of clarifying the historical background of the Jainas in the Gupta age involving their literary activities. The history of the Jainas in the Gupta age has been so far buried in oblivion, which is attempted to be brought to light in order to explain the background and the cause of the great schism, that enables us to place the T. S. in the clear-cut position in the literary history of the two Jaina traditions.
The problems proposed in the last category are particularly of challenging nature, however they are indeed difficult as they involve many technical and historical problems yet unsolved. Nevertheless this thesis is hoped to be able to contribute to the research activities in this direction, and any constructire suggestions for its incvenent will be appreciated. The Bhasya which was composed by the aphorist himself and the Sarvārthasiddhi which is the oldest extant Digambara commentary
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