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XXII : MAHĀPRATYAKHYANA-PRAKĪRNAKA
8. Maranaviśuddhi. Out of these eight works, we get the names of the earlier six – 1. Maranavibhakti, 2. Maranasamadhi, 3. Samlekhanāśruta, 4. Bhaktaparijñā, 5. Aturapratyākhyāna, and 6. Mahāpratyäkhyāna in the Nandistītra and its Cūrni, while those of the latter two - Ārādhanā and Maranaviśuddhi are not found therein." The inclusion of Mahāpratyākhyāna in the Maranavibhakti indicates that it is a treatise on the subject of Samadhimarana. The name, Mahāpratyākhyāna is also justified because its contents emphasise the renunciation of the body of the aspirant, which is at the core of attachment in the scheme of things. Actually, it is in this sense that its name, Mahāpratyākhyāna, is fully and unequivocally justified.
The Question Of Recognition Of Prakīrnakas -
The Śvetāmbara traditions, whether accepting eighty-four canonical texts or only forty-five, both accept Prakirnakas as canonical works. However, the Sthānakavāsi and Terapanthi traditions of the Svetambara Jainas, who accept only thirty-two texts as canons, do not accept them (the Prakīrnakas) as such. Out of the forty-five works accepted as canons by the idol worshipping sect of Svetämbara Jainas, these traditions have derecognised ten Prakirnakas, Jitakalpa, Oghaniryukti and Mahāniśītha. Thus, having derecognised thirteen out of fortyfive, they are left with thirty-two works, which they accept as canonical scriptures. The reasons advanced by these two traditions of the Svetāmbaras for derecognising these thirteen works -ten Prakīrnakas and the other three - is that these thirteen works contain many such precepts, which go against the traditionally
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A. Nandīsūtra, 80. B. Nandīcūrni, p. 58.
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