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Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c10: Chapter V: Samavāyāṅga (Samavāyaṃga)

Some Jaina Canonical Sūtras c10

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Chapter V: Samavāyāṅga (Samavāyaṃga)

c10.2

This *sūtra*¹ is counted as the fourth *Anga* of the Jain *Āgama* which may be regarded as a Jaina canonical compilation in continuation of the third *anga* called *Thānamga*. Both the *angas* follow the numerical method of presenting their subject-matters as in the Pāli *Anguttara* or *Ekuttara Nikāya*. The *Thānamga* agrees more closely with the *Anguttara Nikāya* in so far as their numerical groupings stop at the number ten while the *Samavāyamga* supersedes them in going not only beyond ten but also beyond hundred and even as far as *kror* and *kror* of *krors*.

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¹ Ed by Rai Dhanapat Singha, Published by the Jaina Prabhākara Press, 1890, Ed with commentary in the Āgamasamgraha, Vol 4, Benares, 1880, with Abhayadeva's commentary by the Āgamodaya Samiti, Bombay, 1918

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The title of the *sūtra* implies that it presents in a nutshell the contents of all the *angas*, the fourteen *puvvas* and a few other texts of the canon besides the principal tenets of Jainism. In view of the fact that the *sūtra* includes even its own contents, one cannot help doubting that the text in its extant form retains its earlier identity. The suspicion about its later transformation increases when we find that it speaks of the eighteen later developments of the *Brāhmī* script, and enumerates the thirty-six sections of the *Uttarajjhayana* besides giving the contents of the *Nandī sūtra*. It is equally important to note that the idea given of the extent of the *angas* is not quite the same as that of the texts in their present form. The main importance of the *sūtra* is therefore mainly historical in so far as it throws light not only on the subject-matters of the fourteen *puvvas* and the twelfth *anga*, which are lost beyond recovery, but also on the earlier extent of the *angas* forming the principal texts of the Śvetāmbara Jain Canon. This *sūtra* contains the enumeration of the two *rāsīs* and their sub-divisions, two types of hellish creatures, etc. It also deals with three Vedas (*purisa, itthī* and *napumsaka*), twenty-four *Tīrthankaras*, nine *Vāsudevas* and nine *Baladevas*, etc.

c10.5

The *Lalitavistara*² offers us a list of sixty-four alphabets which were learnt by the Bodhisatta. This list names the three main parent scripts, *Brāhmī, Kharosthī* and *Puskara-* sārī before introducing the later local varieties of the Brāhmī and a few numerical and notational symbols. The Jaina sūtra altogether ignores the Kharoṣṭhī alphabet. The only parent script mentioned is the Bambhī (Brāhmī). The Yavanalipi finds mention for the first time in Kātyāyana’s Vārttika to Pāṇini’s Grammar. The anka, gaṇita and gandharvalipis are all mathematical and musical notations. The Ādarśa, Māheśvara, Dāmī and Bolīdi cannot be identified. The same remark holds true in the case of the remaining names. The chief interest of the study of the sūtra centres round the information supplied regarding the contents of the fourteen puvvas and the twelfth anga known as the Drṣṭivāda. It is suggested that the twelfth anga was the direct outcome of the fourteen puvvas. The connection shown between the two is too ingenious to carry conviction. The puvvas were the ancient traditions the number of which grew up gradually from eight to fourteen and the Jain tradition also speaks of the process of their gradual disappearance. So far as the twelfth anga is concerned, its subject-matters seem to be appropriately termed pravādas meaning discussions or disputations. They are enumerated as follows: (1) utpāda—setting forth the origination of all substances and their circumstantial changes, (2) āgraṇīyam—describing the extent of the different types of souls among the substances and their transformations, (3) vīrya—enlightening us on the active energies of the ajīvas and the jīvas, (4) asti-nāsti—expounding what truly exists and what is not or judging the nature of reality from different standpoints in accordance with the Jain doctrine of syādvāda, (5) jñāna—defining the five kinds of knowledge, (6) satya—setting forth the nature of truth, self-control, truthfulness along with their opposites, (7) ātmā—discussing the nature of self (soul) in different ways according to Jaina modes or methods (nayas), (8) karma—dealing with the classification of karma and defining the kinds of karma, (9) pratyākhyāna—dealing with the subject of pratyākhyāna, (10) Vidyā—dealing with the subject of learning, (11) abandhya—dealing with the subject of fruitfulness, (12) prāṇāyuḥ—dealing with the spans of life of living beings, (13) kriyaviśāla—dealing with the prescriptions regarding different religious practices, and (14) lokavindusāra—dealing with the art of language.

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² Ed Lefmann, pp 125 126

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In this as well as in other Jaina canonical sūtras Baladeva and Vāsudeva and their families are accorded a very prominent place. The Pāli Mahāniddesa distinctly bears evidence to the existence of the two groups of devotees, namely, those of Baladeva and Vāsudeva.¹ Saṃkarṣaṇa (Baladeva) and Vāsudeva figure as special objects of worship also in the Ghosundi stone inscription. Among the five vīras or family heroes of the Vṛṣṇis, Baladeva was given precedence over Vāsudeva. But since the name of Sāmba was eliminated from the list and the caturvyūha doctrine came into existence in about the first or second century A.D, Vāsudeva came to occupy the first and the most important place. The two lists of twenty-four Tīrthankaras, the one relegated to the Avā-vata kalpa and the other to the future cosmic system, are absolutely fantastic and they carry no meaning save and except that according to the Jain conception the present is just a repetition of the past as future is that of the present. The enumeration of the different doctrinal points of Jainism, the classification of the living beings according to the species, soul-types, existences, activities and destinies, the classification of the gods, asurakumāras and the infernal beings, are all too trivial to deserve full treatment here.

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¹ Niddesa, PTS Ed, I, p 89—Vāsudevavattikā vā honti, Baladevavattikā vā honti

Cites (7)