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cora clean falalert aua valled... AWARD OF THE ARBITRATOR IN THE DISPUTE BETWEEN ACHARYA SHRI SAGARANANDA SURI AND ACHARYA SHRI VIJAYA RAMACHANDRA SURI, RE : INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION OF UMASVATI'S RULE: क्षये पूर्वा तिथिः कार्या वृद्धौ कार्या तथोत्तरा AND OTHER QUESTIONS ARISING OUT OF THEM.
ARBITRATOR : Dr. P. L. VAIDYA
M. A. (Cal. ); D. Litt (Paris) Professor of Sanskrit & Allied Langauges
Nowrosjee Wadia College, Poona. The dispute on the above-mentioned topic submitted to me for Arbitration arises out of a difference of opinion between two celebrated Acharyas belonging to the Tapagaccha Sect of the Svetambara Murtipujaka Jains on the question of the adjustment of dates or Tithis in the popular Calender called Chandamshuchandu Panchanga of Jodhpur, when these dates or Tithis happen to be ksina or merged, i. e., touching no sun-rise, and vrddha or extended, i. e. touching sun-rise on two consecutive days, particularly in regard to the dates that are held holy or sacred by the Jains or that fall within a period of holiness or Parva, such as Paryusana and the ending days of each fortnight of a month.
In the years 1992 and 1993 of the Vikrama Era, there arose an occasion for the exhibition of this difference of opinion among these Acharyas because in both these years the Chandamshuchandu Panchanga showed the vrddhi of Panchami in the bright half of the month of Bhadrapada. This Panchami was the day originally fixed in the Jain Shastras for the observance of Samvatsari or annual day of forgiveness and is thus a holy day or parva day. In the days of Kalakacharya, a famous Acharya of bygone days, the date of Samvatsari was however shifted back to Chaturthi in order to avoid a clash with another local festival of those days. Since then all Jains have been observing the Samvatsari on Chaturthi of the bright half of Bhadrapada. In 1992 and 1993 however, Acharya Sagarananda Suri recommended to his followers that Samvatsari should be observed on Sunday, 20th August 1936, which according to popular Panchanga was the first of the two days of extended or vrddha Panchami. Acharya Vijaya Ramachandra Suri, on the other hand, recommended to his followers that it should be observed on Saturday, 19th August 1936, which, according to the same Panchanga was Charturthi. In the following year the same phenomenon repeated itself; there occurred the vrddhi of Panchami in the bright half of the month of Bhadrapada; Acharya Sagarananda Suri
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