INTRODUCTION.

The Name and Origin of the Book Gommatasara.

The probable reasons for the name Gommatasara being assigned to this authoritative work on Jain philosophy may be summarized as follows:

In Karma Kanda Gatha 965, the author states that this treatise is based on the discourses of Shri Vardhamana, the 24th and last Jain Tirthankara of the present era in Bharata Kshetra the region of India, and that these teachings are well established by the rules of logic (Pramana and Naya). The author has called Shri Vardhamana, or Mahavira, by the name "Gommatadeva."

The word "Gommata" is probably derived from go (speech) and mata or matha (abode), meaning "the abode of speech"—the Lord from whom flows the letterless voice, the wonderful music known as Divya-Dhvani. Sara means essence or condensed purport. The word Gommatasara thus means "the essence of the discourses of Lord Mahavira."

Again, we learn from the Sanskrit commentary that the treatise is a compilation of the answers given by the author, Shri Nemi Chandra Siddhanta Chakravarti, to the questions put to him by Raja Chamunda Raya, who asked him to enumerate the sub-classes of "body-making Karma" and explain their existence, bondage, non-bondage, and cessation of bondage with regard to the spiritual stages of...