Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 2

Author(s): G C Chaudhary
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 18

ŞATKHANDAGAMA AND PRAJNAPANĀSŪTRA
carya, the author of the Dhavala, deserves our attention (Satkhandagama, Vol. I, p. 60). There are two kinds of authors, Artha-kartā and Grantha-kartā. So far as the Satkhandagama is concerned, the Artha-kartā is the revered Mahāvīra, but the Grantha-karta stands for Gautama and other saints down in succession to Puspadanta and Bhutabali. The composition of the Saṭkhandagama is based on the very preachings of Mahavira on which that of the Prajñāpanāsutra is based. But it was natural that there arose differences in style and classifications, etc., according to the traditions of (different) schools. In texts of fixed traditions, chronological priority or posteriority can be inferred from the development in style, etc.; but in independent traditional inheritance such an inference proves invalid; and, on this point, the editors of the Prajñāpanā -sūtra have themselves laid sufficient stress. They say (Introduction, p. 230):
"The style of treatment i.e., its simplicity or otherwise, cannot be a determining factor in fixing up the chronological order of these works. This is so because the nature of the style was dependent on the objective of the author and on the nature of the subject-matter, simple or subtle. Hence we would be making a great blunder in fixing up the chronological order of Prajñāpana and Saṭkhandagama if we were guided only by the fact that the treatment of the subject-matter in the Satkhandagama is more detailed and subtle than that found in Prajñāpana-sūtra."
It would not be out of place to clarify another point also. The Śvetambara scholiasts primarily confined themselves to the Ardhamăgadhi canon and pursued the resurrection, compilation and expansion in in their composition. But the Digambara saints, accepting that the original Agamas were lost, started composing works in a new style with some independence; in this pursuit learned Acaryas used their intellectual gifts without any restraint (or inhibition). As a result of this, the authors of the Saṭkhandagama acquired the knowledge of the traditio nal lore (Siddhanta) from Dharasenācārya; and, on the strength of their intellectual gifts, developed the five-fold Mangala from two-fold one, namely, 'Namo Araham tanam' and 'Namo sava sidhanam' found on the Kharavela inscription. Such efforts must have been made in different regions, in different circles of learned monks and at different ages. When one scrutinises the Cattaridandaka, it has a four-fold Mangala. The third item mentioning Sahu could easily get expanded, along with the organisation of ascetic community, to include Acarya, Upadhyaya and Sarva-sadhu. One of the early Tamila Kavyas, Jivakacintamani, adopts the Cattari-mangalam in the benedictory verses instead of five-fold Mangala. Likewise possibly, it is these