Dr. Samani Mangal Pragya
It has a unique style of composition to present the reality. Reflecting upon its way of presentation, Acharya Mahapragya writes that, in this text there are 36 thousand expositions on queries. 'This proves that it is composed in question and answer style.' The commentator (cūrṇīkāra) of Nandī has expressed that Lord Mahavira had made expositions of the questions asked by Gautam and others, and also addressed some unasked questions. In the present version of this text same question and answer style is found. However, the mode of questioning and also of answering is very brief and sometimes cryptic too. Questions begin with 'se ṇuṇam bhante...'and answers begin with 'hantā goyamā'. Such as
se ṇūṇaṃ bhante! calamāṇe caliye.
hantā goyamā! calamāṇe caliye
The language of the questions and answers is very simple. Sometimes due to the demand of the subject, the answers are very elaborative. Sometimes, the questions are elaborative and the answers are very brief. Due to the briefness of the answers, often counter-questions have also been raised. Those counter questions begin with the phrase 'se keṇaṭṭheṇa' and the dialogues conclude with the explanatory words 'se teṇaṭṭheṇa'.
The specialty of this text is that each śataka opens up with introductory verses which inform about the subjects, topics and sub-topics of the whole śataka and even within the prose text, ample number of informative verses are frequently found.[1]
