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INTRODUCTION
(4) The Genuineness
The question naturally arises as to which of the two readings of aphorisms is genuine and which has undergone a transformation. My own uptodate reflection convinces me that it is the bhāsya-mānya reading of aphorisms that is genuine-or rather it is this reading that is very much closer to the genuine reading than is its Sarvārthasiddhi-mānya counterpart.
After so much discussion about the readings of aphorisms it seems necessary to give some thought to the two commentaries first composed on them—viz. the bhāsya and Sarvārthasiddhi. That the bhāsyamānya reading of aphorisms is genuine or close to genuine and that (as aleady shown) Vācaka Umāsvāti himself is the author of the bhāsya-on both these questions it is natural for the Digambara masters to keep silent. For all the Digambara masters coming after Pūjyapāda have for the basis of their respective commentaries the very Sarvārthasiddhi and the readingof-aphorisms accepted by it. So if they concede that the bhāsya or the bhāsyamānya reading of aphorism is a composition of Umāsvāti then the reading of aphorisms accepted by Pūjyapāda and his commentory cease to remain fully authoritative. Certainly, in the eyes of the Digambara sect Sarvārthasiddhi and the reading of aphorisms accepted by it are an acme of authoritativeness. Hence the present Introduction will remain incomplete if the relative authoritativeness of the Bhāsya and Sarvārthasiddhi is not subjected to a searching examination.
Now even if there is no doubt whatsoever as to the bhāsya being a work of the aphorist himself, yet granting for argument's sake that that is not the case one can certainly say without fear of contradiction that the bhāsya is older than Sarvārthasiddhi and is the very first commentary on Tattvārthasūtra; for it is not sectarian in the manner of Sarvārthasiddhi. To grasp this essential point the following three things are being considered below :
(a) The difference of style; (b) The development of meaning; (c) Sectarianism.
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