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A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s8: 8. Jainism

A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s8

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8. Jainism

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Jaina philosophy, originally written in Prākrit, was driven by the advantage of Sanskrit to make use also of that language, and in the *Tattvārthādhigamasūtra*¹ of Umāsvāti we find in Sūtras and commentary a very careful summary of the system. His example was followed widely; Samantabhadra wrote in the seventh century the *Āptamīmāṅsā*² on which Akalaṅka commented; both were attacked by Kumārila and defended against him by Vidyānanda, in his comment on the *Āptamīmāṅsā*, and Prabhācandra, a Digambara whose tomb records his death by starvation, in his *Nyāyakumudacandrodaya* and *Prameyakamalamārtaṇḍa*. Çubhacandra's *Jñānārṇava*³ belongs to *c.* 800. In the eighth century Haribhadra, a voluminous writer, produced his *Ṣaḍdarçanasamuccaya* and *Lokatattvanirṇaya*,⁴ which are less specifically Jain than his *Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya*, *Yogabindu*,⁵ and *Dharmabindu*,⁶ which gives a review of ethics for laymen, monks, and the blessings of Nirvāṇa. Hemacandra's *Yogaçāstra* and other works have already been recorded. To his *Vītarāgastuti* Malliṣeṇa in 1292 wrote a *Syādvādamañjarī*,⁷ which is an important contribution to Jain philosophy. Āçādhara's *Dharmāmṛta* is ascribed to the thirteenth century; it is a full account of the whole subject, but his date precludes the assertion that he was a contemporary of the well-known poet Bilhaṇa. To Sakalakīrti in the fifteenth century we owe the *Tattvārthasāradīpikā*, which contains a full account of the Digambara sacred books, and the *Praçnottaropāsakācāra*, which, in the favourite form of question and answer, deals with the duties of laymen.

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¹ Ed. BI. 1903-5; trans. H. Jacobi, ZDMG. lx. 287 ff., 372 ff., who places him before A. D. 600. The traditional date for this author in S. C. Vidyabhusana (*Indian Logic*, pp. 168 f.) is untenable. See H. von Glasenapp, *Der Jainismus* (1925).

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² Cf. Fleet, EI. iv. 22 ff.

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³ Weber, *Berlin Catal.*, ii. 907 ff.

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⁴ Ed. and trans. L. Suali, GSAI. xviii. 263 ff.

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⁵ Ed. Bhavnagar, 1911.

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⁶ Ed. and trans. GSAI. xxi. 223 ff.

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⁷ Ed. Benares, 1900.

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Other works are, though intended to inculcate the Jain faith, more vitally connected with branches of literature in the narrower sense of that term, and these, as in the case of Siddharṣi's *Upamitibhavaprapañcā kathā*, Amitagati's *Subhāṣitasaṁdoha* and *Dharmaparīkṣā*, have been noted above. There must be mentioned numerous Caritras, legends of saints, some in Sanskrit, and even Purāṇas, including the *Harivaṁçapurāṇa* (784) of Jinasena, and the *Ādipurāṇa* of another Jinasena, whose pupil, Guṇabhadra, wrote the continuation, the *Uttarapurāṇa*, giving the lives of the Tīrthakaras after Ṛṣabha. A further continuation was made by Lokasena in 898. Much later is the *Çatruṁjayamāhātmya*, a panegyric of mount Çatruṁjaya, in fourteen cantos of epic style. The *Padmapurāṇa* of Raviṣeṇa is ascribed to *c.* A. D. 660.

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The Jain contribution to philosophy, so far as it was original, lies in the effort to solve the contrast between what is abiding and what passes away by insisting that there is an abiding reality, which, however, is constantly enduring change, a doctrine which in logic is represented by the famous Syādvāda, which essentially consist of the assertion that in one sense something may be asserted, while in another it may be denied. But any serious development of metaphysics was prevented by the necessity of accepting as given the Jain traditional philosophy which could not be rationalized.

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