Sanskrit Manuscripts : Pāṃcabolakāraṇastavana

Vinayavijaya Upādhyāya, Vinayavijaya Upādhyāya

Sanskrit Manuscripts

A Jain hymn of polemic character. Five disputants (naya-vādin) first expound their respective theses, each on one factor they consider as the main cause. Hence the title Paṃcakāraṇabolastavana. They are: time, kāla (up to verse 22), nature, svabhāva (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>f. 2r1</a> and following, verses 23ff.), necessity, bhavitavyatā (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>f. 2r5</a>, verses 27ff.), act karma (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>f. 2r10</a>, verses 32ff.), and energy, udyama (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(4);return false;'>f.2v6</a> and following, verses 40ff.). Later on they take the occasion of Mahāvīra's general assembly in Rājagṛha to have their doubts removed by him (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(5);return false;'>3r4</a>, verses 50ff.). It is a hymn to Mahāvīra as versed in philosophical debates as well as to the Jain methods of argument (syādvāda). The work was composed in V.S. 1723 (chronogram) = 1666 CE by Vinayavijaya Upādhyāya of the Tapāgaccha, pupil of Kīrtivijaya. The mehalasāhaba of the colophon can be identified for sure with Major Colonel William Miles (1780-1860) who was the British resident at Palanpur in 1822. This manuscript was copied for him and Miles gives a detailed analysis of the contents of the text in his account of the Jainas of Gujerat and Marwar (Miles 1832: 340-341). The scribe is a Jain monk called Vīravijayagaṇi the pupil of Rūpavijayagaṇi, probably one of the "Jain priests" who were Miles's informants. Another manuscript of the Cambridge collection <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01266-00009/1'>Add. 1266.9</a>, a copy of the Cauvīsadaṇḍa with a Gujarati commentary, was copied for him in the same place on the same date by another scribe, Bhaktivijayagaṇi.