DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29591#0046
42
Charpentier, Uttaradhyayanasutra
we do not know the age of either of these passages; so much
only seems to be certain, that the enumerations of the ahga’s 3
and 4 must be of a later date than the oldest set of canonical
scriptures to which some parts of our text do certainly belong. As
for the KS., part of it has taken its materials from Ayar. II, 15,
a text which goes back only as far as the time of Mahavira’s attain-
ing the Jinahood. To what degree the passage quoted here
rests on really old tradition it is scarcely possible for us to decide,
but it may well be of later date. After all, I do not feel so far
convinced by these passages as to give up my suggestion that the
Uttaradhyayana may originally have contained a smaller number of
lectures, consisting exclusively of old religious and legendary poetry,
and that the chapters dealing with purely dogmatical matters are
the work of one single author, having been added at a time when
the whole bulk of canonical literature already existed, although
perhaps —- or rather, certainly -— not quite in its present shape.
I shall now proceed to take a short survey of the lectures which
I look upon as forming the really old and original part of our text.
These chapters may roughly be divided into such as contain
only legendary matter, and such as are of a general religious or
moral content, amongst which I also include some chapters that
may correctly be styled parables, viz. ch. VIII The parable of the
ram’, ch. X ’The leaf of the tree’ and ch. XXVII ’The wicked bul-
locks’. Amongst these lectures are also included the eighth chapter,
which is — with the exception of ch. XXVII — the only one in
the whole text of which it is directly stated that it was not recited
by Mahavlra — ’The verses of Kapila’1.
There is scarcely much to be said in a short survey concern-
ing the chapters of religious and moral character, although they
may be of the greatest interest both to the student of religions and to
the philologist. Whosoever has read the old Buddhist collections
of religious and moral stanzas, the Dhammapada and the Sutta
Nipata, will be well acquainted with the style and mode of ex-
pression that pervades also these parts of our text. There are
certainly in these old preachings verses which could only be found
in a purely Jain text — nobody will deny this simple fact; but,
if one takes a chapter amongst the others and reads it carefully
1 Concerning Kapila cp. the commentary on ch. VIII infra.
Charpentier, Uttaradhyayanasutra
we do not know the age of either of these passages; so much
only seems to be certain, that the enumerations of the ahga’s 3
and 4 must be of a later date than the oldest set of canonical
scriptures to which some parts of our text do certainly belong. As
for the KS., part of it has taken its materials from Ayar. II, 15,
a text which goes back only as far as the time of Mahavira’s attain-
ing the Jinahood. To what degree the passage quoted here
rests on really old tradition it is scarcely possible for us to decide,
but it may well be of later date. After all, I do not feel so far
convinced by these passages as to give up my suggestion that the
Uttaradhyayana may originally have contained a smaller number of
lectures, consisting exclusively of old religious and legendary poetry,
and that the chapters dealing with purely dogmatical matters are
the work of one single author, having been added at a time when
the whole bulk of canonical literature already existed, although
perhaps —- or rather, certainly -— not quite in its present shape.
I shall now proceed to take a short survey of the lectures which
I look upon as forming the really old and original part of our text.
These chapters may roughly be divided into such as contain
only legendary matter, and such as are of a general religious or
moral content, amongst which I also include some chapters that
may correctly be styled parables, viz. ch. VIII The parable of the
ram’, ch. X ’The leaf of the tree’ and ch. XXVII ’The wicked bul-
locks’. Amongst these lectures are also included the eighth chapter,
which is — with the exception of ch. XXVII — the only one in
the whole text of which it is directly stated that it was not recited
by Mahavlra — ’The verses of Kapila’1.
There is scarcely much to be said in a short survey concern-
ing the chapters of religious and moral character, although they
may be of the greatest interest both to the student of religions and to
the philologist. Whosoever has read the old Buddhist collections
of religious and moral stanzas, the Dhammapada and the Sutta
Nipata, will be well acquainted with the style and mode of ex-
pression that pervades also these parts of our text. There are
certainly in these old preachings verses which could only be found
in a purely Jain text — nobody will deny this simple fact; but,
if one takes a chapter amongst the others and reads it carefully
1 Concerning Kapila cp. the commentary on ch. VIII infra.