History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s3.30

c17.s3.30

In this connection the passage in the *Samavāya*,² commented on by Abhayadeva, is important. Both the text and the commentary are repeated almost verbatim in the *Nandi Sūtra*,³ with its commentary by Haribhadra. This passage purports to describe the *Dṛṣṭivāda*, the lost twelfth *aṅga* of the Jaina canon. That book appears to have been a comparison, in parallel passages, of the doctrines of orthodox Jainism with those of three heresies, the Ājīvika, the Catuṣkanayika, and the Trairāśika. The first part of this text was a description of the *parikammāim*, which the scholiasts define as the preparations necessary to grasp the meaning of the *sūtras* correctly. These *parikammas* were divided into seven groups, which were in turn divided into subsections. Their names are given as *siddha-seṇiyā-parikamme*, *maṇussa-*, *puṭṭha-*, *ogahaṇa-*, *uvasampajja-*, *vippajaha-*, and *cuyācuya-seṇiyā-parikamme*. The commentators seem to have had little knowledge of the true nature of these *parikammas*, and they need not detain us. Significant for our purpose is a passage in the text: "Six (of these *parikammas*) are orthodox, seven are Ājīvika, six are Catuṣkanayika, seven are Trairāśika."⁴ The Ājīvikas and the Trairāśikas are said to maintain the *cuyācuya-seṇiyā-parikamma*, which was not recognized by the orthodox Jainas, nor by the Catuṣkanayikas.