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Studies in Jainology, Prakril
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REFLECTIONS ON THE JAINA
EXEGETICAL LITERATURE
According to the Jaina tradition the teachings of the Jina or Mahavira were grasped and then composed by his close disciples, the ganadharas, in the form of sūtras which later on came to be orally transmitted to the successive generations of teachers. And those teachings, according to the Śvetāmbara tradition, finally settled down in writing, passing through a few redactions carried over during the course of about a millenium, as the “Ardhamāgadhi Canon” consisting of some 45 sacred texts. Depending on the nature of the texts and the needs of the time, a great number of explanatory works - āgamic vyākhyās were composed, at first in Prakrit, and next in Sanskrit and old Gujarati' by the Jaina Ācāryas between the period of c. A.D.100-1800. This huge mass of literature is generally known as the Jaina exegesis or the Jaina exegetical literature, which has contributed its important mite to the history of Indian thought and literature. This vast literature is represented mainly by its four classes or types, namely Nijjutti (Skt.Niryukti), Bhāsa (Bhāsya), Cunni (Cūrni) and Vitti (Vrtti) or Tīkā, mostly forming the four successive layers.
After the Jaina studies in general and the study of Jaina canonical works in particular were pioneered by the Western scholars like A.Weber and Hermann Jacobi, for several years it
was the 4th class of the Jaina exegetical literature, namely the Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
