Vajjalaggam

Author(s): M V Patwardhan
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society

Page 10

INTRODUCTION
(i) The Title of the Work.:
The name of the present work is found given in various forms in the different MSS as Vajjālaya, Vijjāhala, Viāhala, Vajjālagga, Bajjālagga, Vijjālagga, Padyālaya, Vidyālaya and Prajñālaya. Prof. H. D. Velankar ( Jinaratnakośa, Poona 1944, pages 236 and 340 ) mentions the name of the work as Vajtālaya. Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar (Report on Search of Mss. 1883-84, p. 17) mentions the name as Vajjālaggā. Of all these diverse forms, Vaijālagga appears to be the one intended by the author, as is clear from Stanzas 3, 4, 5 and 795, where neither the form Vajjālaya nor Vijjāhala would suit metrically. The form Vajjālae used in st. 794 is metrically faulty. It should be read as Vajjālagge or Sattasae ( which is the reading in Ms A consulted by Laber; see Laber's German essay on the Vajjālagga, Leipzig,
1913, p. 4, foot-note 5). Vajjālaya, Vijjābala, Vijjālagga and the Sanskrit equivalents Padsälaya, Vidyālaya, Frajñālaya and Vajrālaya had probably their crigin in the inability of those responsible for them to understand the meaning of the word Vajjā or lagga or both of them. Hence Vajjälagga was turned into Vajjālaya or Bajjā laya ( which was then equated with Padyālaya or Prajñālaya (storehouse of stanzas or of knowledge)], into Vijjālaya (which was then equated with Vidyālaya – storehouse of knowledge),into Viāhala and Vijjāhala (which latter perhaps stands for Vidyadhara - the receptacle of knowledge). The sense of Viāhala and Vajralaya is obscure. The latter form is perhaps a wrong Sanskritisation of Vajjālaya. Bhandarkar's Vajjā laggā appears to be only a Variation of Vajjālagga with elongation of the final vowel.
The meaning of the name Vajjālagga has been explained by the author himself in stanza 4, as a collection of groups' of
1. In the Vajjālagga, there are a few vajjās ( groups of stanzas ) containing only one or two or three stanzas each, e.g.
#99331 (No. 70) (one stanza); AT9551 (No. 69) and 959145551 (No. 88) (two stanzas each); falta571 (No. 3), 2840331 (No. 52), fafore75371 (No. 87), 9545571 (INo. 85), M605511 (No. 86) and 3175697351( No. 92) (three stanzas each). The longest vajjā in the collection is 2779971 (No. 50) with 25 stanzas.
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