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INTRODUCTION
(i) The Title of the Work.:
The name of the present work is found given in various forms in the different MSS as Vajjalaya, Vijjāhala, Viāhala, Vajjalagga, Bajjālagga, Vijjālagga, Padyalaya, Vidyalaya and Prajñālaya. Prof. H. D. Velankar ( Jinaratnakośa, Poona 1944, pages 236 and 340) mentions the name of the work as Vajralaya. Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar (Report on Search of Mss. 1883-84, p. 17) mentions the name as Vajjalaggā. Of all these diverse forms, Vajjalagga appears to be the one intended by the author, as is clear from Stanzas 3, 4, 5 and 795, where neither the form Vajjalaya nor Vijjahala would suit metrically. The form Vajjālae used in st. 794 is metrically faulty. It should be read as Vajjalagge or Sattasae (which is the reading in Ms A consulted by Laber; see Laber's German essay on the Vajjalagga, Leipzig, 1913, p. 4, foot-note 5). Vajjālaya, Vijjāhala, Vijjālagga and the Sanskrit equivalents Padyalaya, Vidyalaya, Prajñālaya and Vajralaya had probably their origin in the inability of those responsible for them to understand the meaning of the word Vajjā or lagga or both of them. Hence Vajjalagga was turned into Vajjalaya or Bajjalaya [ which was then equated with Padyalaya or Prajñālaya (storehouse of stanzas or of knowledge)], into Vijjālaya (which was then equated with Vidyalaya - storehouse of knowledge), into Viahala and Vijjahala (which latter perhaps stands for Vidyadhara - the receptacle of knowledge). The sense of Viahala and Vajralaya is obscure. The latter form is perhaps a wrong Sanskritisation of Vajjalaya. Bhandarkar's Vajjalagga appears to be only a variation of Vajjalagga with elongation of the final vowel.
The meaning of the name Vajjalagga has been explained by the author himself in stanza 4, as a collection of groups' of
1. In the Vajjalagga, there are a few vajjās (groups of stanzas) containing only one or two or three stanzas each, e. g. हेमंतबज्जा (No. 70 ) ( one stanza ); सरयवज्जा (No. 69 ) and वडवाणलवज्जा (No. 88) (two stanzas each); सोयारवज्जा (No. 3), लेहयवज्जा ( No. 52 ), सिसिर- वज्जा (No. 87), वडवज्जा (No 85), तालवज्जा (No. 86 ) and आइच्चवज्जा ( No. 92) (three stanzas each). The longest vajjā in the collection is (No. 50) with 25 stanzas.
(ix)
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