Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c19.2

c19.2

The *Rāyapasenaiya* or *Rāyapasenaijja* or *Rājapraśnīya sūtra*¹ is counted as the second *upāṅga*. Malayagiri Sūri, who was a contemporary of Kumārapāla, wrote a commentary on it. As its title implies it is a dialogue in which a king is the interlocutor. The kingly interlocutor is called Paesī (Sanskritized as Pradeśī) of Setavyā, a town which is placed in the half of the kingdom of Kekaya. Keśī, a follower of Pārśva, is represented as the gifted Jain recluse who answered the questions put to him by Pradeśī, met the arguments put forward by the latter, while discussing the important problem of future life and rebirth according to the law of Karma. Pradeśī is in the rôle of a typical *akriyāvādin* of the *Sūtrakṛtāṅga* and in that of a veritable *nāstika* denying the existence of soul as an entity apart from the body. This philosophical dialogue is contained in the second part of the *sūtra*, while the first part is concerned with the description of a grand worship of Mahāvīra by Pradeśī reborn as the god known as Sūryābhadeva. The turning point in the progressive career of Sūryābhadeva (which is to say that of Pradeśī) begins as usual from his interview with Mahāvīra. The Pāli counterpart of this Jain *sūtra* is undoubtedly the dialogue known as the *Pāyāsi suttanta* in the *Dīgha Nikāya*. In the Pāli *suttanta* the dialogue is put in the mouth of the Buddhist recluse, Kumārakassapa, the Flower-Talker (*citrakathī*) and the chieftain Pāyāsi of Setavyā, a town within the kingdom of Pasenadi of Kośala, and a halting place on the southern road. Thus the scene of action is laid in both the texts in the town of Setavyā situated not far from Sāvatthī the capital of Kośala.