EDITOR�S NOTE
The L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, has great
pleasure in publishing a critical edition of �Prasamaratiprakarana� by
Umasvati, together with an authentic English translation, Introduction
and detailed critical notes. Dr. Yajneshwar S. Shastri has spared no
pains and has edited the text with the utmost care of a scholar. He
consulted as many as 15 Mss., palm-leaf, paper and published and with
scientific acumen and due sense of discrimination with regard to the
value of each one of the mss. he chose 10 for his editing work. This
makes the present work coming into the hands of scholars and interested
readers for the first time as a standard critical edition together with
an English translation. All aspects-philosophical, ethical, religious
of Jainism and the Jaina way of life as propounded by the author are
discussed as a great scholar should do, with utmost care and minutest
details in the Introduction. Other topics discussed in comparative
light are also enlightening.
We are thankful to Dr. Yajneshwar S. Shastri, who worked
on the project and gave the present work to the world of scholars
through the Institute of which he is Acting Director at present.
16th May, 1989.
R. S. Betai
General Editor
PREFACE
Jainism is one of the three major religions of India.
Since 2500 years, it has made manifold contributions to Indian Society
through its literature, religion and philosophy. Jaina philosophers�
contribution to Indian philosophy after 4th Century A. D. is a landmark
in the History of Jainism. Really, the Jains Philosophy as such started
from the works of Acarya Umasvati Vacaka. It is his two main works,
written in Sanskrit for the first time in the history of Jainism viz.,
Tattvarthadhigamasutra and Prasamaratiprakarana that played a major role
in placing Jainism on the map of Indian philosophical systems. He holds
the same position in the history of Indian philosophy which the great
Gautama, Kanada, Kapila and others hold. The credit of presenting
fundamental tenets of Jainism, for the first time, in Sanskrit language
goes to Umasvati. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Jaina
Philosophical palace is built on the soled foundation laid by Umasvati.
He is the only revered philosopher-saint who is highly respected by all
the sects that developed within the Jaina Community.
Prasamaratiprakarana is a most authentic work on Jaina
Philosophy and Religion. It is the first and earliest work written in
Sanskrit poetic form to propagate Jainism and to guide layperson, by a
first rank philosopher of Jainism. Though this work is undoubtedly from
the pen of the same author who has written Tattvarthasutra with
Svopajnabhasya, the Digambaras do not accept it as a work of Umasvati.
I have tried to throw some light on this matter in my Introduction.
This work is really a compendious one and covers almost all the
important doctrines of Jainism. This work is always held in high esteem
by the Jaina community and considered as a source-philosophical point of
view. Considering its importance in the field of knowledge, an attempt
has been made to fulfill a long-felt need of critical edition with
English translation.
The Introductory essay is really a study on
Prasamaratiprakarana in which I have tried to give a gist and importance
of this work. This Introduction is divided into 9 chapters. The Ist
chapter deals with Umasvati�s life history, viz., family, caste, date,
sect and works in brief. In the IInd chapter, an attempt is made to
substantiate the view that Prasamarati is a work of Umasvati, on the
basis of internal and external evidences. In the IIIrd chapter
Subject-matter of 22 chapters is given in summary form. The Ivth
chapter deals with different commentaries written on Prasamarati. The
Vth and VIth chapters, respectively deal with Ethical and Philosophical
aspects of Prasamarati in detail. The VII and VIIIth chapters are
devoted to comparison between Tattvarthasutra and Prasamarati and
between Prasamarati, Jaina Agamas and some non-Jaina works. The Ixth
chapter contains critical remarks on Prasamaratiprakarana. Foot-notes
of Introduction are given at the end of Introduction itself for the
reader's convenience.
For the first time this work has been presented with
critically edited version with the help of more than 15 Mss. (Including
palm-leaf, paper and published.) Out of these I have selected 10 Mss.
for editing. Description of these 10 Mss. is given on separate page. A
separate list of available (palm leaf as well as published) Mss. on
Prasamarati in different places (Bhandaras) is also given in foot-notes
No. 52 of introduction, for the interested scholars� reference. I am
fortunate to obtain two of the oldest palm-leaf Mss. one with
Haribhadra�s commentary and the other with an unknown author�s
commentary from Patan, written in 1241 A. D. and in 1431 A. D.,
respectively. Both are in very good condition. The palm-leaf Ms. with
Haribhadra�s commentary is a very good one and seems to be copied by a
person of good knowledge of Sanskrit. The specialty of this Ms. is
that, it is neatly written and neither grammatical nor orthographical
mistakes are found. This is an oldest and authentic Ms. on which my
editing is based. I have also accepted one more published Ms. with
Haribhadra�s commentary as ideal copy. On the bases of these two Mss. I
have omitted corrupt and incorrect regardings found in other Mss. Paper
and published Mss. are consulted to make my reading perfect. The main
reason in consulting some published Mss. is that they are published on
the basis of view of critical editing. I have, in my editing, mentioned
only important readings avoiding many wrong readings such as grammatical
or metrical found in different Mss.
Again, it is for the first time that this work is
translated into English and I am perfectly aware of my own limitations.
Translation of Sanskrit verses into a foreign language is not an easy
task. Some times it becomes very difficult to translate Sanskrit terms
into English. The translation is as literal as possible and it is done
strictly keeping Jaina Philosophical lines in mind. I tried to give
exact rendering as far as possible. While translating a verse I have
added some times a few words in to brackets to give complete meaning of
the stanza wherever I felt necessary. This addition in translation is
also mostly based on Haribhadra�s commentary. For the sake of
convenience of the readers English translation is given immediately
after each verse. Along with translation a few elucidatory notes on
technical tems are given below translation, whenever it is felt
necessary. Foot-notes' numbers are given in English translation. Those
numbers mentioned on the top of each word in the original Sanskrit
verses are numbers of variant readings found in different Mss. and given
in Appendix-I. Readers are requested to note this point. To make this
edition complete as far as possible in itself I have given a list of
Subhasitas found in Prasamarati in Appendix-II, and in Appendix-III,
Alphabetically arranged verse-index is given. Recently Dr. K. V. Sheth
in carge of Ms. Dept gave me a newly found paper Ms. of Prasamarati with
Jasasomagani�s brief commentary (Sankseparthavrtti). It is unknown and
unpublished so far. Thus, I have included it in the Appendix-IV and I
have given details about this Ms. in the end of description of Mss.
At the outset, I feel it a solemn duty to express my deep
sense of gratitude to Pt. D.D. Malvania, a renowned Indologist of our
present day, who went through the complete Introduction and gave
valuable suggestions. I must also express my indebtedness to my
scholarly colleague Dr. R. S. Betai for his valuable suggestions and
corrections in my English rendering from time to time. I am highly
obliged to the authorities of the L. D. Institute of Indology for
including my research work under the L. D. Series.
I hope, this humble contribution of mine will be of help
to the students and scholars of Indian philosophy in general and Jaina
philosophy in particular.
Ahmedabad.
Yajneshwar S. Shastri
May,
1989.
DESCRIPTION
OF MANUSCRIPTS
The present edition of the Prasamaratiprakarana is based
on the following 10 Mss. :
A.1 This is the best and oldest palm-leaf Ms. with
Haribhadra�s commentary labeled as:, written in V.S. 1298 = 1241 A.D.
found in Hemacandracarya Jnana Bhandar, Patan, No-68-1. It has 192
folios (leaves) containing 3-4 lines per page and 55 60 words in a
line. The size of each page is about 35.5 x 3.7 C. M. It is in very
good condition. It is written in black ink in Devanagari characters.
Double strokes are used to show the end of each verse. The specialty of
this Ms. is that it mentions �Granthagra� after every hundred and verse
numbers and granthagra are marked with red color (geru). On the right
side of the palm-leaf, page numbers are given in Devanagari and on the
left side numbers are mentioned. This Ms. is written in two parts (Khanda).
In the middle of the Ms. there is a hole to tie the Ms. The last leaf is
a little torn and piece of paper is pasted on it.
In this Ms. chapter numbers are not regularly mentioned.
The Copyist was not very serious about mentioning numbers of chapters.
After the end of each chapter, some times, he is regular and some times
mentions two to four chapters collectively. For example, after verse
227 he mentions. Again the scriber is careless inputting verse
numbers. On account of copyist�s mistake, at the end of the Ms. we find
a total of 315 verses, but actually there are only 313. Instead of
putting 274, he numbered 275, and in place of 303, he puts 304. Total
mentioned Granthagra of this Ms. is 1800.
This Ms., begins with :
(Original language words are missing)
and ends with:
(Original language words are missing)
The colophon which gives the date of the Ms., runs like
this:
(Original language words are missing)
A.2 This is a published Ms. along with Haribhadra�s
commentary in pothi form, published by Jivachand Sakerchand Javeri, for
the Seth Devachand Lalbhai Jain Pustakoddhar Fund Series No. 88 at Surat,
in 1940. This published Ms. is based on Ms. copied by Amrta Vijaya, V.S.
1823.
B.1 This is a palm leaf Ms. with an unknown author�s
commentary, 35 x 3.7 Cm. in size, with a label, �Prasamarativrtti�. It
is from Hemacandracarya Jnana Bhandar, Patan, No-68-2. It contains 300
leaves and it is written in Devanagari script on both sides of the
leaves in black ink. It is a very carefully written Ms. Each side of
the leaf has 3-4 lines and about 52-53 words in each line. It gives
only first verse of the Prasamarati in full and then throughout the
commentary, gives only beginning of the each verse. It gives only first
verse of the Prasamarati in full and then throughout the commentary,
gives only beginning of the each verse. It gives word to word
explanation of the text. On the right side of every leaf numbers are
given. It seems from the colophon that, an old Ms. was having torn
leaves and those torn leaves were rewritten on papers by Punyamerugani
and Hemasagaragani in V.S. 1487 (=1431 A.D.). But some leaves are
missing in this Ms. viz. commentary on verses 309-313. Total mentioned
Granthagra is 2500.
It begins with:
(Original language words are missing)
and ends with
(Original language words are missing)
Colophon runs like this:
(Original language words are missing)
B.2 This is a paper Ms. with the text and an unknown
author�s commentary, written by an unknown copyist in Nagor in V.S. 1951
(1905 A.D.). This Ms. belongs to L.D. Institute of Indology, No-10283,
about 25.4 x 12.2 Cm. in size. It contains 80 folios written on both
the sides in black ink. Each page contains 10-12 lines and 44-48 words
in each line. It is written in Tripatha style, i.e., original text is
in the centre and the commentary is on the upper and lower part of it.
It is in very neat and clear Devanagari script, double numbers are given
on the right side of each folio in red ink. In a few places verse
numbers are marked with geru (read muddy ink). On the left-side, top
corner of each folio, name of the work and folio numbers are mentioned.
Margin on each folio, is marked with tripple lines in red ink. For the
sake of decoration red lines are drawn on four sides in the corner of
each folio. Condition of the Ms. is very good. But it seems that the
copyist was not well-versed in Sanskrit Language. On account of this,
we find many orthographical errors. Short and long ovals are not given
proper care. Verse are written collectively and only one number is
given for both. For example, verses 4 and 5 are written together and
only no. 4 is given to both. Some times, that copyist has written first
line from one verse and second line from another and put collectively
one number. On account of these mistakes we find in this Ms. only 310
verses, though, there are in all 313 verses with commentary.
It begins with:
(Original language words are missing)
It ends with:-
(Original language words are missing)
B.3 This is a published Ms. with an un-known author�s
commentary and avacuri, published by Sri Jaina Dharma Prasaraka Sabha,
Bhavnagar in V.S. 1966. It is in �Pothi� form and has a total of 95
pages.
C. This is paper Ms. about 26.5 x 11.3 Cm. in size,
with a label, �Prasamarati Prakarana� No. 5514m from L. D. Institute of
Indology, Ahmedabad. It contains only original text in 5 folios. It is
written on both the sides of country made paper in Devanagari characters
in black ink, in V.S. 1531 (=1475 A.D.) There are 18 lines per pages and
76-82 words per line. Condition of the Ms. is very good. Writing is
very clear and strokes are given before and after each verse. Verse
numbers are marked with red muddy color (geru). Folio number is given
on the right side of each folio in the lower corner of the folio.
Margins marked with three lines on both the sides in red ink. The
speciality of this Ms. is that it has central flower mark (Madhyaphullika)
in the middle of every side of the folio. It is copied by Nathaka in
Samvat 1531 (=1475 A.D.). It begins with (The original words language
are missing) and ends with (The original words language are missing)
D. This is a published Ms. edited by Modi Keshavlal
Premchand, in Ahmedabad in V.S. 1960. It has a total of 36 pages and it
is based on two Mss. In the end of this published text, beginning and
end of the two Mss. are given.
E. This is a published Ms with Gujarati explanation by
Karpura Vijaya. It is published by Jaina Dharma Prasaraka Sabha,
Bhavnagar in V.S. 1988. It is in �Pothi� form and has a total of 111
pages.
F. This is published Ms. by Jaina Sreyaskara Mandal,
Mehasana with Gujarati translation by Karpura Vijaya in V.S. 1966. It
is published along with some other small treatises such as
�Paramasukhapraptirupacittasuddhiphalam� etc.,
G. This is again a published ms. with Hindi Bhavanuvada,
by Muni Padmavijaya. It is edited by Nemichandra Maharaj and published
by Nirgrantha Sahitya Prakashana Sangha, Delhi in 1969. It has a total
of 172 pages.
Description of paper Ms. of Prasamarati with commentary
(brief) of Jasasomagani (see Appendix-IV)
This paper Ms. belongs to L.D. Institute of Indology,
Ahmedabad, No. 45706. This is with brief commentary (avacuri type) by
Jasasomagani. It is written in V.S. 1668 = 1612 A.D. in Vatapalli
nagar (i.e., present day Palli near Patan). It contains 14 folios and
is written in Tripath a style (i. e. original text is in the middle and
commentary is on the upper and lower side of the folio). The beauty of
this Ms. is enhanced by Madhyaphullika, Swastika and Riktalipicitramaya
tree. The commentator has also, saluted his guru (teacher) Sri
Harsasomagani in Riktalipicitra (i.e., Pandita Sri Harsasomagani
gurubhyo namah-Folio 3rdA to 8A). It is in very good condition though it
is more than 375 years old. Size of the Ms. is 26 x 11. Cm. Verse
numbers are shown in red ink. Margins of both sides are marked with
three lines in red ink.
It begins with:-
(Original language words are missing)
and ends with
(Original language words are missing)
This is a brief commentary on Prasamarati. The
commentator himself calls is �Prasamaratiprakaranasya sanksepato
arthavrttih�. It is really a kind of avacuri and lacks originality of
its own. It is completely based on two earlier commentaries and avacuri.
All the 313 verses are not commented upon by this commentator.
This commentary gives meanings of certain difficult terms. He has
commented up to 295 verses that also leaving many verses uncommented in
between. Though this commentator includes all the 313 verses of
Prasamarati, on account of irregularity of giving verse numbers, we find
only 310 verses in the end of this text. This commentator also mentions
in the end that Prasamarati cantains only 312 verses (I. e.
Prasamarateraryasatatrayam dvadasottaram parisamaptamiti) though he
includes all the 313 verses.
INTRODUCTION
A Critical study on Prasamaratiprakarana, its author�s
life history, its authorship, its Summary, its Commentaries, Ethical and
philosophical Aspects, Comparative study with Tattvarthasutra, Jaina
Agamas and Some non-Jaina Texts and Critical remarks.
