विनयविनिच्छयो: Vinayavinicchayo (An Old and Rare Book) (Only 1 Quantity Available)

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The present edition of the Vinayavinicchaya makes it accessible to the Devanagari reading public for the first time. It also presents a reliable, critical edition of the whole work as available now. It is, therefore, a welcome addition to the book-world of Pali scholars. The Intro-duction by the editor is also commendable.

The author of the work is believed to have been Buddhadatta, though his pupil Buddhasiha too undoubtedly had something to do with the production of the work. Buddhadatta is also said to have been indebted to Buddhaghosa in his access to the ancient tradition.

The work summarizes the Vinaya systematically and concisely. It is written in chaste and fluent Pali. It would be of interest not merely to the student of Buddhism but also to those whose interest lies in Pali literature as such.

It is true that a number of ancient versions of the Vinaya-Pitaka exist. Frauwallner has listed five different versions preserved in the Chinese Tripitaka. Central Asia too has yielded Vinaya texts and there are Tibetan versions. The understanding of the history of Vinaya, thus, undoubtedly requires a comparative study of different versions of the old tradition. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the Pali version is the completest and perhaps the most ancient and faithful one. The Vinayavinicchaya is an excel-lent introduction to the study of the Vinaya Pitaka. Its illustrations and images are replete with social significance and the social historian would find it of as much interest as the literary historian.

Dr. Hari Shankar Shukla deserves to be congratulated for this excellent work which is the fruit of his admirable scholarship and patient effort. I am sure the work will be used by scholars for a long time.

It was a fine morning on the bank of the river Kaveri where a lonely cottage was giving a soothing look. The birds started coming out of their nests and the flapping of the wings just awakened their young ones. The rhythmic sound of the replates of the river was creating a wonderful music with flying birds in a solemn atmosphere. And young scholar was seen standing at the door of a cottage situated in the natural surroundings. He had a few bundles of perhaps leaves wrapped in saffron cloth on his joint palms. Suddenly, the door of the cottage was opened and an old saint with soothing appearance and smiling face just came out with spiritual glory obviously marked around him. It was an immensely beautiful scene. The former handed over the bundles of leaves to the latter uttering silently "Rev. Sir, I have fulfilled my promise." The readers should now no longer wait in refreshing their memory in knowing that the former young man was the great commentator, Buddhaghosa and the later old one was the saint scholar, Buddhadatta. The spot was none else than the small cottage situated in natural surroundings of the monastery of VenhuDasa on the bank of the river Kaveri in South India. The bundles of leaves were commentaries on the Vinaya written by Buddhaghosa at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka and brought to his teacher as fulfilment of the promise made at the bed of the sea where the two had met at the onward and inward voyage for the pious purpose of bringing back the commentaries from Sri Lanka on the words of the Buddha.

The joy knew no bounds when Buddhadatta found before him the manuscripts of the commentaries on the Vinaya brought by Buddhaghosa in Pali. He remembered his own promise to prepare the summary of the same for the benefit of all. He forgot his old age and he went through the manuscripts and composed a treatise embracing all the basic principles of the Vinaya.

Vinayavinicchaya' which is fortunately at your hands in Devanagari script in the land of its origin one thousand and five hundred years after its composition. This is due to the blessings of the Triple Gem that the publication of the critical edition of the text is now complete.

It is a historical event of the first quarter of the Vth century A. D. when Buddhadatta flourished as an erudite scholar of the Buddhist lore, a saint and a free thinker. He composed the Vinayavinicchaya' and also Uttaravinicchaya taking the basic materials of the commentaries on the Vinaya. He composed it in elegant style in verse containing 3183 couplets in the 'Vinayavinicchaya' and so nany in 'Uttaravinicchaya.' This text is classed as the manual literature and the first manual of its kind on the Vinaya, it was received with honour by the scholars in India and Sri Lanka but unfortunately it did not remain in India for so many reasons. The book was preserved in Singhalese, Burmese and also in Roman scripts but it did not appear in any one of the Indian scripts for a long period of one thousand and five hundred years. Perhaps, the sons of India remained engaged in so many other problems of the country and did not try to bring out a critical edition of the text.

It was the fortunate moment in my life when I got admission to the M. A. course in Pali at Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda. I got the opportunity to learn the Pali text sitting at the feet of scholars of repute. Those were the pious moments when I received lessons on Buddhist Philosophy from Late Bhikkhu J. Kashyap, Late Prof. Satakari Mukherjee, Late Prof. U. Dhammaratan, Prof. Nathmal Tatia, and Prof. Mahesh Tiwary.

The Vinayavinicchaya' is a text on the Vinaya. It briefly presents all the basic principles of the Vinaya-Pitaka as recorded in the original text as well as in commentaries. It is traditionally believed that Buddhaghosa after comple-ting the writing of the commentary of the Vinaya brought the manuscripts and handed them over to Buddhadatta. ¹ This text is mainly based on the material brought by Buddhaghosa from Sri Lanka. It presents the theme of the original text, the different commentaries written in Singha-lese in Sri Lanka and the oral traditions surviving in India as well as in Sri Lanka. The entire book is composed in elegant verse replete with lovely illustrations, similies etc. They still survive in the monastic as well as household life. It is, perhaps the first effort to introduce the profound and sublime ideas of monastic life through minimum possible words. The stereo-type expressions of the Tipitaka have been avoided and a simple style of stating the facts has been introduced. It appears that the style of the Tipitaka had become terse by that time. A silent desire was growing in the mind of the people of gaining access to the vast treasure of Vinayic literature. Gradually, the psychological demand became strong and immensely powerful till it took a practical shape. It is in the background of the fulfilment of this psychological demand. This is the origin of this type of writing. It is classed as manual literature. Thus the 'Vinayavinicchaya' is the first manual of the 'Vinaya'.

The title of the text 'Vinayavinicchaya' is most significant. The word 'Vinaya' represents the monastic rules regulating the physical, vocal and mental deeds of the monks and nuns engaged in spiritual pursuit. The word, 'Vinicchaya' is a multi-significant term. It is derived as Vi+ni+chi+a. It means decision, judgement, trial, discrimination, analytical discussion, theme, basic points or the appearance of concepts in a crystal-clear form. All the meanings are significant in different contexts. They can be judged through the process of analysis.

Then, what is the meaning in this present context? Here, in this text the word, Vinicchaya' expresses the sense of brief exposition of the basic principles of the Vinaya making them crystal, clear and easily accessable. Therefore, it is generally called the manual of the Vinayic literature.