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Branches of Learning in Canons : 79
current Praśnavyākarana, Āvasyakaniryukti and Uttarādhyayana have a mention of 29 of them but their names given by later commentators show that they are different from Samavāyānga. And this list is different from Samavāyānga not only in number but names also. Sūtrakrtänga is still ahead with 64 types of non-sacred learnings as shown in Table 3. Table 3 : Number of Non-sacred Learnings. 1. Sūtrakrtānga
64 2. Sthānānga 3. Samavāyānga
13 ( 29-16) 4. Uttarādhyayana
13 ( 29-16 ) different from 3 5. Avasyakaniryukti
13 ( 29-16) Same as in 4 6. Praśnavyākarana 13 ( 29-16) Same as in 4 7. Anuyogadvāra
20 8. Nandi-sūtra
25 9. Digambara pro-canons No number mentioned.
There are approximately 12 names in Dhavalā with some other names.
The number 29 has been reduced to 13 as eight of them have two types of commentaries which could not be taken as separate unit.
Strangely most of the early works have difference in qualitative and quantitative contents on the same subjects. The redactors should have attempted uniformity in all these texts for their authenticity. The discrepancies of this type are prone to faith erosion in the sermons of the jinas. This point could be rectified only through the studies under historical perspective. There may be good number of reasons for this types of discrepancies, some of which may be as follows :
Til Authors at different places and times might have composed their different texts without proper knowledge of early works.
(ii) Among contemporaries, the communication gap might have led to these differences.
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