________________
17. MŪLĀCĀRA : A STUDY
- Dr. N. Suresh Kumar, Mysore
Mūlācāra is one of the sacred text of Digambara Jain sect of Jainism. It has been mentioned as scripture or Agama by several Jaina Ācāryas of later period who have written commenteries on several works like Ācārya Pūjyapāda in Sarvārthasiddhi, Vīrasena in Dhavalā, Āśādhara in Anagāra Dhamāmsta etc. Sometimes it is also mentioned as Ācārānga , the first canonical scripture of Jainism by its commentators like Ācārya Vasunandi. Meghacandrācārya. It has been named as Mülācāra ,because it is the scripture comprising the rule of conduct for the monks who belongs to MŪLA SANGHA. 609 or 632 years of the Mahavira nirvana samvath ie., the time line begun from the salvation of Lord Mahavira, the sect Svetambara came into being and at the same time the nude ascetic group formed a sangha and called it as MÜLASANGHA. At this critical period there was an emergency occured that to literary framing of Ācārānga until that period which was inherited by oral tradition amongst few Ācāryas.
Vattakera* who was the only one to know of the scripture Acārānga gave it a literary form for the purpose of saving the tradition of monks of Mūlasangha. This was aimed at preventing the members of Mūlasangha from following the false rule of conduct whilst there was chaos in the ascetic order because of the schism in the ascetic order. Thus the work which contains the rule of conduct framed for the monks of Mūlasangha was also named as Mūlācāra rather than Acārānga. Author Vattakera uses the word 'Müla' time and again for the purpose to give caution to the saints of mūlasangha that they must practice the rule of conduct as mentioned in Mūlācāra. Again that name has been given to scripture as it originated to Lord Mahaveera's order, thus the word 'Müla' has been used to show that saints and also the scripture
- 150 -
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
