Yashovijaya

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Mahopadhya
Yashovijaya
Ji Maharaja
Svetambara

Yashovijaya (

Svetambara Jains) who influenced the Mughal Emperor Akbar to give up eating meat.[2]
He is also known as Yashovijayji with honorifics like Mahopadhyaya or Upadhyaya or Gani.

Early life

Yashovijaya was born in a village called Kanoda in the

Bhaktamara Stotra at a very young age.[4]

Life as a monk

He was initiated as a young monk under the stewardship of Muni Nayavijaya. According to some sources, he came to

Upajjhaya (teacher), Nyayavisharada (one who is skilled in logic) and Nyayacarya (authority on logic).[6]

According to Jonardon Ganeri, Yashovijaya's intellectual biography can be seen as falling under three heads: an apprenticeship in Varanasi studying Navyanyaya, a period writing Jaina philosophical treatises using the techniques and methods of Navyanyaya, and a time spent writing works with a markedly spiritual and religious orientation. One of the decisive events in the process leading to this transformation was Yashovijaya's meeting with Anandghan, a Jain spiritual poet and monk.[5]

He was a prolific writer and is said to have authored around 100 works in Sanskrit and Gujarati.[7] After a career as a monk, philosopher, author, poet and logician, for almost 80 years, he died at Dabhoi, Gujarat in 1688 CE.[6]

Philosophy

Buddhist.[10]

Secular intellect and tolerance

In his famous work, Adhyatmopanisatprakarana he argued that no body of ‘theory’ (sastra), whether Jain or non-Jain, is to be accepted merely on the basis of sectarian interest. Instead, the theory should be subject to testing, just as the purity of a sample of gold is determined by tests involving rubbing, cutting and heating (1.17)[11] In one of the ethical works, the Jnanasara, Yashovijaya describes 32 moral and intellectual virtues that constitute a virtuous character. Out of these, two are distinctive: neutrality (madhyasthata) and groundedness in all view-points (sarvanayasraya). Neutrality is explained in terms of the dispassionate use of reason: a person who embodies this virtue follows wherever reason leads, rather than using reason only to defend prior opinions (16.2). Yashovijaya stresses that neutrality is not an end in itself, but a means to another end. We adopt a neutral attitude, he says, in the hope it leads to well-being (hita), just as someone who knows that one among a group of herbs is restorative but does not know which one it is, acts reasonably if they swallow the entire lot (16.8).[12]

Conception of self

Yashovijaya authored two famous texts — Adhyatmasara and Adhyatmopanisatprakarana— that analyses the true nature of self. Yashovijaya describes the state of true self-awareness as a state beyond deep sleep, beyond conceptualisation, and beyond linguistic representation, and he says that it is the duty of any good sastra to point out the existence and possibility of such states of true self-awareness, for they cannot be discovered by reason or experience alone.[13] Yashovijaya argues that from the standpoint of niscaya naya (real standpoint) the soul is called jiva if it leads an embodied life. This is different from Kundakunda’s view of niscaya naya, that only a soul that possesses the most essential property of the soul—cognitive capacity—is jiva. This means that according to Kundakunda only a released soul is jiva from the standpoint of niscaya naya. While both position have valid logic, Yashovijaya criticised this view as it had no support from any prior authors.[14]

Intellectual critic and criticisms

Yashovijaya stressed that neutrality does not mean acceptance of every position whatever, but acceptance only of those that satisfy at least the minimal criteria of clarity and coherence needed to legitimately constitute a point of view.

Tapa Gachchha (a sub-sect of Svetambara Jains).[16]

Despite his eminence and influence, one criticism leveled against Yashovijaya is that he is best known for his Navya-Nyaya commentaries of earlier existing works rather than his own original works. Furthermore, his works on Yoga, dhyana, grammar and poetry did not gain much fame, as the works of Haribhadra and Hemacandra on these topics were already established and famous by the time Yashovijaya came on the scene. His fame largely rests on his mastery of navyanyaya, for which he had no contemporary rival. This could be because, for almost six centuries between Hemacandra and Yashovijaya, Jainism did not produce any able scholar on philosophy of nyaya.[17]

Influence and legacy

Shrimad Yashovijayji Jain Sanskrit Pathshala in Mehsana

Yashovijaya left behind a vast body of literature that exerted a vast influence on the

Atmasiddhi wherein, he has provided six fundamental truths on soul and liberation following Yashovijaya's Adhyatmasara.[19] A college called Jain Yashovijaya Pathashala has been established in Varanasi in his memory, under auspices of which the sacred Jain texts are being published in a series called Jain Yashovijaya Granthamala.[7] The Jain community of Ahmedabad has honoured him by naming one block as Yashovijaya Chowk at the Relief Road end of Ratanpol where Yashovijaya lived for many years.[18] In Mehsana too, the work of Srimad Yashovijayji Jain Sanskrit Pathshala is particularly praiseworthy. Many students from here have been initiated as Jain saints and several have become Jain religious teachers.[20]

Works

Some of the texts authored by Yashovijaya are:[21]

  • Ashtasahasri Tatparyavivarana Tika. Includes original text "Aptamimamsa" by Acarya Samantabhadra; 800 karika commentary on it by Acarya Akalanka called "Ashtashati", 8000 karika commentary on it by Acarya Vidyanandi called "Asthasahasri" and 16000 karika commentary on it by Upadhyaya Yashovijaya, called "Ashtasahasri Taparyavivarana Tika".Edited by Muni Prashamarativijaya. Pune: 2001.
  • Adhyatmasara. Edited by Ramanalal C. Shah. Sayala: Sri Raja Sobhaga Satanga Mandala, 1996.
  • Adhyatmopanisatprakarana. Edited by Sukhlal Sanghvi. Ahmedabad: Sri Bahadur Singh Jaina Series, 1938.
  • Dharmapariksa. Mumbai: Shri Andheri Gujarati Jain Sangha, 1986.
  • Jaina Nyayakhandakhadya. Edited by Badarinath Shukla. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, No. 170, 1966.
  • Jaina Tarkabhasa. Edited by Sukhlalji Sanghvi, Mahendra Kumar & Dalsukh Malvania. Ahmedabad: Sri Bahadur Singh Jaina Series, 1938/1942/1997.
  • Jnanasara. Edited & Translated by Dayanand Bhargava. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1973.
  • Commentary on Jnanarnava

Notes

  1. ^ a b Dundas, Paul (2004) p.136
  2. ^ Vashi, Ashish (23 November 2009). "Ahmedabad turned Akbar veggie". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
  3. ^ Wiley, Kristi (2006) p. 239
  4. ^ a b Shah, C.P. "Mahopadhyaya Yashovijayji". Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  5. ^ a b Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) p.3
  6. ^ a b c Singh, Nagendra Kr, and Bibhuti Baruah (2003) p.481
  7. ^ a b c Singh, Nagendra Kr, and Bibhuti Baruah (2003) p.482
  8. ^ a b Dundas, Paul (2002) p.110
  9. ^ Dundas, Paul (2004) pp.130-131
  10. ^ Nagendra Kr. Singh, ed (2001) p.7301
  11. ^ Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) p.5
  12. ^ Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) p.4
  13. ^ Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) pp. 5-6
  14. ^ Nagendra Kr. Singh, ed (2001) p. 7303
  15. ^ a b Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) p.6
  16. ^ Dundas, Paul (2004) p.130
  17. Hemacandra
    (11th century CE) and finally Upadhyaya Yashovijaya (17th century CE)
  18. ^ a b Dundas, Paul (2004) p.131
  19. ^ In Atmasiddhi, Sirmad propounded six fundamental truths of true religion—"Soul exists, it is eternal, soul is doer of its action, it is the enjoyer of its action, liberation exists and there exists a path to liberation." Yashovijaya in Adhyatmasara had already propounded these truth, albeit in negative fashion, through his verse—Nasti, na nityo, na karta// na bhokta na cha nivrutah// Tadupayascha netyaahuh// mithyatvasya padani sat// translated as "to believe that there is no soul, it is not eternal, it is not the author, it is not the sufferer, there is no liberation and there is no path to achieve the salvation are the six steps of faithlessness."
  20. ^ "MEHSANA TIRTH – The Jainsite World's Largest Jain Website". jainsite.com. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  21. ^ Ganeri, Jonardon (2008) pp.9-10

References