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INTRODUCTION
across a point that involved a difference of opinion he clearly upheld the Digambara position, a performance in connection with which Kundakunda seems to have served as basis for him. In view of this the Digambara sect accepted Sarvārthasiddhi as its chief authority while, naturally, the bhāsya remained acceptable, only to the Svetāmbara sect. No Digambara monk composed a commentary on the bhāsya and so it remained unavailable to the Digambara sect. On the other hand, numerous Śvetāmbara masters have composed commentaries on the bhāsya and even while at places dissenting from the views maintained in it they have treated it as authoritative on the whole; hence it is that in the eyes of the Svetāmbara sect it is an authoritative text. Even so, we have to remember that the attitude now-a-days taken by the Digambara sect towards the bhāsya was not that of the old Digambara masters. For even the famous Digambara masters like Akalanka have, when possible, sought to demonstrate the compatibility of their own view with that of the bhāsya, thus indicating the authoritativeness of this text (See Rajavārtika, 5.4.8); moreover, they nowhere refute the bhāsya making an express mention of it or seek to demonstrate its unauthoritativeness.
(b) Two Vārtikas
Even the naming of texts is not an accidental act, for if search be made it too reveals a history of its own. It is taking inspiration from the feeling harboured by the preceeding and contemporary scholars as also from the current of naming-process following in literature that the authors assign names to their texts. Thus the reputation of Patañjali's Mahābhāsya on grammar exerted influence on numerous latter-day authors—this we can gather from the name bhāsya' assigned by them to their works. It is likely that this very influence inspired Vācaka Umāsvāti to assign the name 'bhāsya' to his own work. I have memory that in
hed and a removal of aphorisms was open to the charge of unauthoritativeness.
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