Sarvārthasiddhi

Sarvārthasiddhi
English translation of the Sarvārthasiddhi
Information
Religion	Jainism
Author	Pujyapada
Language	Sanskrit
Period	464 - 524 CE

Sarvārthasiddhi is a famous Jain text authored by Ācārya Pujyapada. It is the oldest commentary on Ācārya Umaswami's Tattvārthasūtra (another famous Jain text).^[1][2] A commentary is a word-by-word or line-by-line explication of a text.

Author

Ācārya Pujyapada, the author of Sarvārthasiddhi was a famous Digambara monk. Pujyapada was a poet, grammarian, philosopher and a profound scholar of Ayurveda.^[3]

Content

The author begins with an explanation of the invocation of the Tattvārthasūtra. The ten chapters of Sarvārthasiddhi are:^[4]

1. Faith and Knowledge
2. The Category of the Living
3. The Lower World and the Middle World
4. The Celestial Beings
5. The Category of the Non-Living
6. Influx of Karma
7. The Five Vows
8. Bondage of Karma
9. Stoppage and Shedding of Karma
10. Liberation

English translation

Prof. S. A. Jain translated the Sarvārthasiddhi in English language. In the preface to his book, he wrote:

Shri Pujyapada’s Sarvārthasiddhi has exercised a great fascination on my mind ever since I commenced the study of this great work. Very few works of the world’s literature have inspired me to the same extent or have provided equally satisfactory answers to the world’s riddles, which have perplexed the greatest thinkers of all ages. No philosophical work that I know of treats of the great issues that confront humanity with the same simplicity, charm, ease and freedom.^[5]

References

1. Jain 2014, p. xiv.
2. Banerjee, Satya Ranjan (2005). Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica. p. 151.
3. Indian Journal of the History of Medicine. 1956. p. 25.
4. S.A. Jain 1992, p. vi-vii.
5. S.A. Jain 1992, p. v.

Sources

• S. A. Jain (1992), Reality, Jwalamalini Trust, archived from the original on 2015,  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Jain, Vijay K (2014-03-26), Acarya Pujyapada's Istopadesa – the Golden Discourse, ISBN 9788190363969