Agam 02 Ang 02 Sutrakrutang Sutra

SR No.: 001023
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jambuvijay, Dharmachandvijay
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay
Publication Year: 1978
Total Pages: 475
Language: Prakrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Agam, Canon, Metaphysics, & agam_sutrakritang
File Size: 8 MB

Page 77

FOREWORD
head of a group of monks; his primary duty was to impart lessons to the monks of his group. Lord Mahāvīra had eleven ganadharas, 27 though he had only nine ganas, groups of monks. This was so because two ganas had two heads each. So, there came into existence nine recensions of the Dvādaśāngi. These nine recensions did not differ in meaning. There is no difference of opinion on this point. But there has raged a controversy on the point as to whether all the nine recensions were identical from the point of view of the wording of the sūtras. Some maintained that though from the point of view of meaning the Dvādaśängi was uniform, from the point of view of the wording of the sūtras it came to be ninefold in nine different recensions.28 But there occurs in the Āvasyakacūrni (p. 337) the statement29 that Lord Mahāvīra preached the meaning and the ganadharas composed the sūtra, and the sūtra (composed by the ganadharas) was identical syllable to syllable, word to word and vowel to vowel.30 Thus it seems that according to the Avaśyakacūrni, the Dvādaśāngi was uniform even from the point of view of the wording of the sūtras.
Due to the long life of the fifth ganadhara Sudharmasvāmī all the other ganadharas put their disciples under his stewardship before their death,31 So, the Dvādaśangi imparted to all his disciples by Sudharmasvāmī has been transmitted from one generation of disciples to the next in the tradition of Lord Mahāvīra. Hence the fact that the recension of the Dvādaśāngā, which we now have is not different from that which had been imparted by Sudharmasvāmi to those disciples, is beyond controversy.
One hundred sixty years after the death of Lord Mahāvīra, in the time of Lord Bhadrabāhusvāmī, who was proficient in fourteen Pūrvas, several portions of the Dvadasāngī were forgotten by Jaina monks due to the natural calamity of twelve year long famine. So, the Order of Jaina monks assembled in Pāțaliputra, and collected and compiled the Ekādaśāngi after having heard from monks whatever anga, adhyayana, uddesaka or portions thereof they remembered. For learning the twelfth Anga Drstivāda, Jaina monks headed by Sthulabhadra approached Bhadrabāhusvamī who was at some place on the
27. Ibid., p. 28, line 8. 28. Ibid., p. 28, fn. 1. 29. "evan tāt bhrgavta aoth kahito tähe bhagavaṁto egapáse suttan
karemti,tamakkharehim pachim vamjaņehim saman 11" 30. Refer to the Prastāvanā to the present edition of the Sūtrakrtānga, p. 29,
lines 7-10, as also to the Appendix V to the Ācārangasūtra, MJV Edition, p. 401. Refer to the Prastāvanā to the present edition of the SūtrakȚtänga, p. 28, fn. 2.
31.