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CHAPTER 1
CANONICAL STAGES A Chronological Survey of the Canonical Texts
The Bhagavati deals with all the branches of knowledge coming under the general heads of jiva-ajiva developed during the 1,000 years of the canonical period, and they have been edited in the most disorderly manner possible as is made evident by a glance through the Table of Synopsis in Chapter II. The major and foremost task before us is to perform a chronological analysis of the Bhagavati I-XX of which the dates have not yet been determined.
In view of this, the immediate step for our task calls us to conduct a chronological survey of the trends of the currents of thought runnning through the canonical texts which have relevancy to the Bhagavati contents. We would therefore propose to divide the canonical period into five stages as below for the following purposes: firstly, to establish the criteria of thought development made in each of these canonical stages so that they enable us to evaluate the date of each sutra or sutra group in the Bhagavati I-XX in the corresponding stage/s; and secondly, to allow us to locate which texts in the Bhagavati constitute its nucleus.
3
Section
1
The first stage (6/5th - 4th centuries B.C.) Acaranga I, Sutrakrtanga I. Uttaradhyayana (excluding IX, XI-X II, XVI-XXIV, XXVI, XXVI-XXXIV and XXXVI, of which XXX II and XXXV express the old concepts in later language) and Dasavaikalika (excluding culikas)
I
The second stage (3rd - 1st centuries B.C.) Da'sa'srutaskandha (excluding V, VI and X), Brhatkalpa, Vyavahara, Nisitha, Acaranga II (excluding the third appendix) and Sutrakrtanga II
I
The third stage (1st century B.C./1st century A.D. -
3rd century A.D.) Bhagavati nucleus and Surya-Candra p. (prajnapti)
IV
The fourth stage (former half of 4th century A.D.) Jivajivabhigama minus Dvipasagara p. and Prajnapana
The fourth-early fifth stages (4th century A.D.) Jnatadharmakatha, Upasakada'sa, Antakrdda'sa, Anuttaropapatikada'sa and Vipakasutra
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