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The earlier Jain Agama had a compositional style similar to that of the Āgama of the Āuddha or Pithakas, which was characterized by long descriptive aphorisms, and it was in the Prakrit language. On the other hand, the compositional style of Brahmin scholars, which began in the Sanskrit language, gradually became very esteemed with its concise aphorisms. This style attracted the reader Umāsvātin, inspiring him to write in that form. As far as we know, Umāsvātin is the first to compose short aphorisms in Sanskrit within the Jain tradition. After him, this aphoristic style gained much prominence in Jain literature, with learned scholars from the Śvetāmbara, Digambara, and other sects writing Sanskrit texts in that style on various subjects such as grammar, rhetoric, ethics, and logic.
Umāsvātin's Tattvārtha Sūtra is divided into ten chapters like the sūtras of Kāṇāda's Vaiśeṣika. The total number of his aphorisms is approximately 344, while that of Kāṇāda’s sūtras is only 333. In this chapter, instead of a Padya division like the Brahma Sutras, there is a section similar to the Vaiśeṣika sūtras which is called Āhnik. Umāsvātin is also the one who initiated the use of the term 'adhyāya' instead of 'adhyayana' in the study of Jain literature; the subsections and the Padya division that he did not start were later introduced by his successors like Akalanka in their own texts. Despite the external composition having notable similarities between the Tattvārtha Sūtra, Kāṇāda, and the Yoga Sūtra, there are specific differences that shed light on the Jain way of thought.