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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In the Sthānangasūtra there occurs, on account of its special form and structure, a reference to an event that took place well 600 years after Lord Mahavira. But on this account the composition of the entire Anga work should not be assigned to an age later than that event. On the contrary, we should maintain that the particular passage wherein this reference occurs is a later addition to the old text. Moreover, in the Bhagavatisūtra there occur some statements to the effect that the Pūrvas will become extinct 1,000 years after Lord Mahavira. On the basis of these statements if one were to draw the conclusion that the Bhagavatisūtra was composed 1,000 years after Lord Mahāyira, then it needs no saying that one has committed a great blunder. What one should instead conclude is that such statements were interpolated in the old text of the Bhagavatīsūtra 1,000 years after Lord Mahavira.
Again, one will be greatly misled if one tries to fix the age of the Agamas on the basis of their language. It is so because this language is Prakrit the nature of which is to remain constantly changing. Hence, the Ācāryas-especially the commentators have tried to transform the language of the Angas into the Sista Prākta of their own times. But on this account the work does not become an entirely new composition; only its language has undergone changes of form. Taking this situation into account we should not attach much importance to the linguistic evidences but on the contrary should put special stress on fixing up the age of the content--the material of a particular work. From this point of view the period before 300 B. C. should be fixed as the age of the Angas on the whole. The Praśnavyåkarana is, of course, an exception, for the work of this name which we at present have differs, in content, from the same described in the Samavāyanga and the Nandi. We have no means to know as to how much after Valabhi Recension this new Praśnavyakarana-new in the sense of having altogether novel contents came into existence. But in any case we can say that it was composed at least before Abhayadeva (12th century of Vikrama Era) who has commented on it.
Among the Upāngas the age of some could easily be determined because we know the age of their respective authors. For example, the author of the Prajñāpanāsūtra is Śyāmācārya who is identical with the Nigodavyakhyātā Āc. Kālaka. He had become yugapradhana in 335 V.N. and held that dignified position up till 376 V.N. Hence the Prajñāpanā could be assigned to the period lying in between 335 V.N. and 376 V.N. That is, it could be regarded as having been composed in between years 135 and 94 before the commencement of Vikrama Era, The Upangas Candraprajñapti and Suryaprajñapti are