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the word Väsī. By Vāsī, the author of Avachūrī understands a mason or a place of dwelling, deriving probably from the Sanskrit word Väsa, whereas Dr. Jacobi translates 'Vāsī' as some 'unpleasant thing' or 'a bad smelling substance-perhaps 'ordure' (i.e., filth or dung).
Before deliberating over the correct interpretation of the above phrase, we quote here other Sūtras where the same phrase bas been used. KALPA SUTRA
The Kalpa Sūtra depicts the life of the 24th Tirtharkara Lord Mahāvīra and also elucidates his Sãdhanā. An excerpt from it is! :
"से णं भगवं वासावासवज्ज......वासीचंदणसमाणकप्पे समतिणमणिलेठ्ठ PTVÌ, Hugtatê......"
Dr. Jacobi translates this passage as follows? :
"The vanerable one lived except in the rainy season, all the eight months of summer and winter in a village only five nights. He was indifferent to the smell of ordure and of sandal, to straw and jewels, dirt and gold, pleasure and pain."
chārya, as in a great many passages it almost verbally agrees with Devendra's work” (which is an abstract from Sāntyāchārya's Vritti)”, S.B.E., Vol. XLV, Introduction pp. xl, xli.
Hari Damodar Velankar, who has published an exhaustive catalogue of the Jain works and authors (in Sanskrit and Prakrit), mentions four different Avachūris on the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra :
(1) Composed in Samvat 1441 by Jñanasāgarasūri, pupil of Devar undarasūri, of the Tapā Gachha.
(2) By Jñanaśīlagani (year not mentioned). (3) By unknown author in Samvat 1488. (4) By unknown author (year not mentioned).
(See, Jinaratna-Koșa, by H.D. Velankar, pub. by Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1944, pp. 44. 45). Velankar has also mentioned the names of places and libraries where MSS are existing in collections. But unfortunately, Strassburg is not mentioned with any of the above four Avachūrīs. It is therefore difficult to know the name of the author of the Avachūrī used by Dr. Jacobi.
1. Kalpa Sūtra, Sūtra 119. 2. Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXII, p. 262.
तुलसी प्रज्ञा
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