Commentaries on the Jaina Śvetāmbara Canon

Abstract

The Vyavahārasūtra, the text that prescribes the atonement rituals of the Jain ascetics and the rules for the operation of their order, has four types of commentaries. They are, in chronological order, 1) the Niryukti (in Prakrit), 2) the Bhāṣya (in Prakrit), 3) the Cūrṇi (in Prakrit and Sanskrit), and 4) the Ṭīkā (in Sanskrit). Of the four, the first two take the subsidiary role of the Sūtra. These are Sūtra-like texts that require further commentary. The Cūrṇi, a commentary on the Sūtra and the Niryukti/Bhāṣya, is a mixture of Prakrit and Sanskrit prose. The last one, the Ṭīkā, like the Cūrṇi, is a commentary on the Sūtra and the Niryukti Bhāṣya. In other words, there are two kinds of texts in the commentaries on the Sūtra and the Niryukti/Bhāṣya. By comparing the Cūrṇi with the Ṭīkā, this paper will show that Malayagiri, the author of the Ṭīkā, constructed his commentary in accordance with the description of the Cūrṇi.