Nandisutt and Anuogaddaraim

SR No.: 001062
Original Sutra Author: Devvachak, Aryarakshit
Author: Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 764
Language: Prakrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Agam, Canon, Ethics, agam_nandisutra, & agam_anuyogdwar
File Size: 14 MB

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INTRODUCTION
Importance of the Jaina Agamas and their Publication
There are good many forces that sustain religion and culture. Among them scriptures are to be treated as an immensely vital one. The founders or propounders of a religion leave this mortal world after having preached the religion. But if their preachings that form an invaluable heritage were collected in the form of scriptures and if these scriptures were preserved well, they serve as true representatives of those religious leaders for ages to come. In our times, the sustaining vital force of Hindu religion are the Vedas, of Buddhist religion the Tripitakas, of Christian religion the Bible and of Islam the Koran. Similarly, the sustaining vital force, élan vital, of the Jaina religion are the Agamas-also known as Ganipiṭakas.
The Vedas, well preserved by the Brahmins, are regarded as one of the wonders of the world. They constitute the oldest literature of mankind. The Upanisads too, which appear in the same Vedic tradition, are proved, when considered from the point of view of time and preservation, to be very old in comparison with other literary works of mankind. After these Upanisads we have in the chronological order the Buddhist Tripiṭakas and the Jaina Agamas.
But there obtains an important and noteworthy difference between the Vedas on the one hand and the Buddhist Tripiṭakas and the Jaina Agamas on the other. The Brahmins have preserved in the form of four Samhitäs the literature composed in Sanskrit by the Rsis-the Vedic poets. They have made herculean efforts to preserve the correct wording-even the original pronunciation of the words concerned, but they have made no such efforts to preserve the meaning of the words concerned. This is a fact none can deny. The Buddhists and the Jainas have done just the opposite. They have tried to preserve the meaning of the words concerned and not the words themselves. The result is that though a Vedic recitor of our times recites the Vedas precisely as did one in the Vedic age he is generally innocent of the meaning of what he recites. Modern scholars upto this day are trying to interpret the Vedas and making painstaking efforts to seek out their meaning with the help of Linguistics. Even then none can say that a major part of the Vedas has been understood definitively. In contrast to this, the Buddhist Piṭakas and the Jaina Agamas have been written in the language of the people of those times. And about their meaning there is no doubt whatsoever. Of course, there are stray words the meanings of which have not come down to us; but well-nigh ninetynine per cent words are such as would occasion no dispute as to their meanings.