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PREFACE : XVII
century.
Generally, Prakīrnaka means “a treatise compiled on miscellaneous subjects'. According to Malyagiri, the commentator on the Nandīsūtra, the monks used to compose the Prakirnakas based on the sermons of the Tīrtharkaras (the Prophets Propounders of the Jaina faith). “Caurāsīmi painnagasahassīimi”, in the Samavāyārgasūtra, points towards eighty-four thousand Prakīrnakas having been composed by the eighty-four thousand disciples of the first Tirtharkara, Lord Prophet Rsabhadeva. As there were fourteen thousand disciples in the order of the last (twenty-fourth) Tīrtharkara, Lord Prophet Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, the number of Prakīrnakas now should have been a similar number. However, today the number of Prakirnakas is not definitely known and presently only ten Prakīrnakas are recognised amongst the forty-five canonical works. These ten Prakirnakasare as follows':
Nint non
Catuhšarana, Aturapratyākhyāna, Mahāpratyākhyāna, Bhaktaparijñā, Tandulavaicārika, Samistāraka, Gacchācāra,
Samavāyāngasūtra, Ed. Muni Madhukara, Agama Prakāśana Samiti, Beawar, I Ed., 1982, 84" Samavāya, p. 143. A. Prākıta Bhāsā Aur Sāhitya Kā Ālocanātmaka Itihāsa, Dr.
Nemicanda Šāstrī, Varanasi, p. 197. B. Jaina Agama Sāhitya : Manana Aur Mīmāmsā, Ācārya
Devendramuni Sāstrī, Udaipur, p. 388. C. Agama Aur Tripitaka : Eka Anuśīlana, Muni Nagaraj, p. 486.
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