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TULSI-PRAJNA
plural of Kahão.
But we have instances of Nāya being a neuter noun also. In the Vasudeva bipdi we come across some illustration stories called Nāya. One of these is Dhanasiri - Nāyam which has been told to establish that there are women of firm character too (Dadhasilae-DhanasiriŅāyaṁ). The author of the Vasudevahiņdi claims that it belongs to the Padhamānuyoga category. So it may be taken to be of Āgamic antiquity. Again, in the body of the Ņâyâdhammakahão itself we come across the forms Nāya and Ņāyaya also. There may be a feminine form Ņāyā too. This leads us to the conclusion that Ņāya, Ņayā and Ņāyaya have analogous origin. These are derived form Jņāta and Jņātaka.
Although commentators say that Jņāta is an illustration story (drstānta kathā) and there is also an elaborate account of Nāta or Naya <Jñāta, in the Thāna, yet the word jñāta (that which is known) and for that matter the word Jñataka too, hardly conveys the sense of illustration story, unless we take the word Jnataka as having come down from Jạāpaka (that which makes koown) through popular etymology.
In the Bębatkathā-ślokasaṁgraha an illustration story has been called a Jñāpaka. It is told to establish the view that Destiny (daiva) is stronger than human endeavour (puruşakāra) Here the word Jņāpaka has been used in the same sense as Nāya in the Vasudevahindi. It may be noted that Vasudeva bindi and Brbata kathā-slokasaṁgraha have large areas of intersection, maybe ihe two have sprung from the sa me source, viz. the Paišāci Bțbatkatha. Their period of composition too may be the same. Then a modern Hindi commentary upon the Thầna (JVB edn) uses the word "Ipapaka' as an equivalent of Nāta or Naya <Jñāta. In the light of the above an etymological relation between Näta/Naya <Jņāta, Nayā/Nayaya<Jpātaka on one hand and Jõā paka on the other cannot be ruled out.
There can be no doubt that Jñāpaka (that which makes known) is semantically closer to illustration story than Jñata or Jñātaka. We may assume that at some stage Jñåpaka changed to Jñātaka through popular etymology. Uses of the Jñäpaka tpye of stories were so frequent that these stories became quite well known, so much so that a slight reference like 'saṁsayappă vinassai' or 'madhu cva paśyati prapātam naiva paśyati' was hipt enough for the readers or the listeners to reconstruct the story. So such stories came to be popularly called known (Jñata/Jñātaka) stories. In the Prakrit stream Jñata changed to Nāta and Ņāya and Jñātaka changed to Nāyaya, In the Pali stream Jõtātaka gave rise to Jataka whose
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