________________
INTRODUCTION
21
time--may be somewhat earlier or somewhat later the branch Uccanāgara might have originated from śāntiśrenika. However, even while assuming that Vācaka Umāsvāti belonged to the branch Uccanāgara originating from śāntiśreņika and even while accepting the date that has been conjectured for its origination it is difficult to say as to how long after this origination of the branch Vācaka Umāsvāti actually flourished ! For the names attributed in the eulogy by him to his preceptor-in-respect-ofinitiation and his preceptor-in-respect-of-education-neither of them is to be found in the Sthavirāvali pertaining to Kalpasūtra or in any other similar Pattāvalī. So if anything has to be said about the date of Umāsvāti on the basis of the Sthavirāvali in question the utmost will be that he flourished near about 471 years after Mahāvīra—that is, near about the beginning of the Vikrama era—and not earlier. All further information in this connection is still in the dark.
(2) A ray projecting some obscure light in this darkness is represented by the date of the old commentaries that were written on Tattvārthasūtra, a date imposing a hitherto undefined later limit to the date of Umāsvāti. For if exception be made of the Bhāsya which is of the form of an auto-commentary then śarvārthasiddhi of Pūjyapāda turns out to be the oldest among the presently available direct commentaries on Tattvārthasūtra. Now the date of Pūjyapāda has been determined by the scholars to be the 5th-6th centuries A. V. So on the basis of that we can say that Umāsvāti flourished at some period before the 5th century A. V.
In accordance with the above manner of consideration the earliest date appropriate for Vācaka Umāsvāti turns out to be the 1st century A. V., the latest such date the 3rd-4th centuries A. V. The task of locating the definite date of Umāsvāti within this period of 300-400 years remains to be undertaken.
(3) Certain particular points emerge also from instituting a comparison between Tattvārtha and its Bhāsya on the one hand and the other philosophical systems and the Jaina Āgāmas on the other, points likely to be of use in solving the problem of date
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
