विनयसूत्रवृत्त्यभिधानस्वव्याख्यानम्: Vinaya-Sutra and Auto-Commentary on the Same (An Old and Rare Book)

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Preface The photographic prints of Vinaya-sutra with its commentary by Guhaprabha himself were lying with K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna, for several years. There was a small photographic copy of Vinaya-satra itself written in Sanskrit language but Tibetan script and a separate text of Gunaprabha’s Sanskrit commentary, mostly fragmentary, written in ancient Indian script. Photographic script of the text being too small, it would have been difficult to decipher it without the help of Rahall’s text of Vinaya-sutra, printed but not yet published. The text of the Vinaya- Vrtti by Gutiaprabha extended over several pages.

The portion on which our text here is based consists of the following parts according to Rahall’s un-published edition. The introductory fragmentary part consists of the passages, with some missing pages, extending over pages 1-17, ending with Sutra 168 of Rahula Sankrtyayana's Vibhanga portion of adattadana of Vinaya-Sutra-Vrtti. The next portion is a very big portion of Sutras 576-1226 covering Naihsargika and Prayaicittika, with the portion of the Sutra and comments on Sutras 1003-1014 missing. Next portion contains Sutras 1495-1530 covering some portion of Prayakittika and a part of Sa-pranaka-jala-sambaddha-Kfudrakadhigata. The last portion contains only Sutras 2320-2332 and includes only Bhiksuni-Vibhanga-Prayakittika-SUtras 20-25. In all, the text of the Vrtti extends over 225 pages of the manuscript.

As the text was big, it was contemplated that Dr. Raghunath Pandey, Dr. V. V. Gokhale, and Dr. P. V Bapat should be entrusted with the editing of the work. Dr. Raghunath Pandey gave a tentative edition of a portion of about one third of the first chapter reaching only upto Sutra 148 of our edition in Vinaya-Sitar, in the Sanskrit Vibhagaki Sodhapatrika of Aligarh Muslim University, 1970-71, vols. 3-4, in his paper Vinaya-sutra-Vrtti. Shri Jion Abey, a post-graduate student of Tokyo University, residing in Poona, copied out for our comparison, the Tibetan version of the remaining two third portion of the first chapter, edited here fully.

The remaining portion of the text of the commentary being very fragmentary, it was thought necessary to limit our present efforts to the publication of the first chapter only. We are indebted to both these gentlemen for supplying the copy of the relevent portion of the Tibetan text from the Peking edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka vol. cxxiv published at Tokyo by the Suzuki Research Foundation.

In this text of ours, the text of the Sutras is indicated in a different type. To facilitate reading we have dissolved Sanskrit Sandhis in many places. The portion in square brackets indicates that these words are either missing in the part, or are based upon Tibetan version. The footnotes explain other readings or indicate parallels in other Buddhist Literature. Some explanatory notes are also given in an Appendix A fairly detailed Index is added at the end, which may be useful for locating important words. (pp. 65-84) in this text.

Introduction Pandit Rahula Samkrtyayana, the great scholar Ideologist, brought from Tibetan monasteries photographic copies of several Sanskrit works deposited there. Among them he brought photographic copies of Vinaya-Sutra and an auto-commentary on the same called Vinaya-Satra-vrttya-bhidhana-Sva-vyakhyanl by Gunaprabha. He has also provisionally printed an edition of the Vinaya-Sutra, though it is not formally published. The Director of the press where it was printed approached us for necessary corrections, knowing its tentative character. On examination it was discovered that this edition of the Inga-Sutra was very unsatisfactory. We then decided in 1963 to undertake this work containing fragments of the auto-commentary, which regularly quotes all the Sutras and comments on them. The photos of this auto-commentary are deposited in the K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna.

As a preliminary of this work, we are giving here only the first chapter of Vinaya-Sutra-Pravrajya-vastu, along with its commentary by the same author Gurjaprabha in the Original, or rendered from the Tibetan translation.

Tibetan Translations This work Vinaya-Sutra was held in great respect by the Buddhists of the Mala-Sarvastivada School. This work along with its commentaries has been translated into Tibetan.' The Tibetan works directly concerned with our text in the Tibetan Translations of Bstan Hgyur are as follows: -

1. Vinaya-Sutra of Gunaprabha (vol. 123, No-5619 of the Peking photographic edition) has been translated into Tibetan by Jinamitra, 2 etc. 2. - Vinaya-Sutra-Vrttyabhidhana- Sva-vyakhyana, auto-commentary by Gunaprabha, has been translated (vol. 124, No. 5621) into Tibetan by Alankaradeva8 etc.

3. Vinayasatra-Tika by Dharmamitra has been translated into Tibetan (vol. 124, 125, 126, No. 5622) by Jina-mitra etc. 4. Vinayasatra-Vyakhyana by Prajnalara (vol. 126, No. 5623).

5. V inayasatra-Vrtti by Gurpprabha (vol. 126 and 127, No 5624).

6. Vinaya-K arika composed by Vgakhadeva and translated into Tibetan by Jayakara, Prapiakirti etc. (vol. 127, No. 5651).

Book's Contents and Sample Pages