Vijyanandsuri Swargarohan Shatabdi Granth

Author(s): Navinchandra Vijaymuni, Ramanlal C Shah, Shripal Jain
Publisher: Vijayanand Suri Sahitya Prakashan Foundation Pavagadh

Page 805

It is again to his keenness to minister to the needs of the students that his gloss on the Dasavalkalika sutra, one of the most sacred text of the Jainas, owes it origin. The Dasavaikalika sutra has been commented upon, down the years, by a large number of enlightened scholars including the polymoth Haribhadra Suri, whose commentary Samayasundara denounces as abstruse (visama) 36 Samayasundara has handled the Prakrit text with assured authority. The Dipika unmistakably betrays his deep grasp of the vast mass of canonical literature. His claim that the gloss, though not inexhaustive, is characterised by lucidity and ease, is not unjustified. It indeed serves to project the contents of the text in bold relief. On the author's own testimony, the gloss was written at Khambat, in V.S. 1691 (sasinidhisrngaramite varse).
His commentary on Bhadrabahu's Kalpasūtra, another equally sacred text, is aimed to serve a higher purpose, much beyond the academic needs of the monastic students. The Kalpasutra is known to have evoked, over the ages, as many as ninety commentaries. Samayasundara seems to have gone through at least a majority of them with a good sieve. He was justifiably convinced of the merits of his Kalpalata,” which, he asserts, with an egoistic air, was sure to surpass the earlier glosses and commentaries.
Though begun at Lunakarnasara, it was completed at Rinipura, some time between V.S. 1684 and 1685, when, as confirmed by Dwayarasamiravrtti and yati - ārādhanā respectively, Samayasundara was camping at Rinipura.
Written at Ahmedabad in V.S. 1688, Samayasundara's gloss on Navatattvaprakarana, popularly known as Navatattva-vrtti (samvat-vasu-rasa -mite), has the undoubted merit of driving home, in lucid and simple phraseology, the essence of the nine tattvas, that form the core of the Jaina doctrine, and, as such, serves as a gateway to the abstruse tenets of the Agamas.
The Dandakaprakarana of Muni Gajasara, consisting of 42 Prakrit stanzas, has also received Samayasundara's attention. The gloss seeks to explain each gathā concisely in a manner that the true import thereof is brought home without any ambiguity sticking to it. It was written at Ahmedabad in V.S. 1696. A MS of the gloss is deposited in the collection
32
Shri Vijyanand Suri Swargarohan Shatabdi Granth