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Another attempt was made. At that time too, a terrible famine like the previous one had fallen, in which many Jain monks passed away due to lack of alms. The practice of the Agamas did not continue in its usual form. Therefore, they began to be forgotten. After the famine ended, a gathering of monks was held in Mathura under the leadership of Arya Skandil. The Agamas were compiled in an orderly manner, collecting whatever was remembered by each monk. This is called the Mathuri Vachana. This was the second attempt at compiling the Agamas.
Around the same time, a similar gathering of monks took place in Vallabhi, under the leadership of Nagarjuna Suri, in the region of Saurashtra, where an attempt was made to compile the Agamas. This falls under the second attempt or Vachana mentioned above. However, it is also called the first Vachana of Vallabhi.
The third attempt:
Until now, the same memorized order had continued. Further, some difficulties began to be experienced in this. People's memory became weaker than before, and their physical strength was not the same. Therefore, it seemed difficult to keep such vast knowledge in memory. The Agamas began to be forgotten. Therefore, after the aforementioned second attempt, 980 or 993 years after the Nirvana of Bhagwan Mahavira, a gathering of monks was held again in Vallabhi under the leadership of Devardhigani Kshamasraman. The context of the previous two Vachanas was present before the monks present at the gathering. In that context, they compiled the Agamas according to their memory. They took the Mathuri Vachana as the main basis. They coordinated the variations in readings, differences in Vachanas, etc., that were prevalent in different monk groups. In this gathering, the Agamas were written down, so that a definite form of them would be available to everyone in the future. Despite the effort, where the readings could not be coordinated, a reference to the alternative Vachana was made. The twelfth Anga, Drishtivad, could not be compiled, because it was not present with the monks. Therefore, its severance was declared. This was the third or final Vachana in the attempt to compile the Jain Agamas. It is also called the second Vallabhi Vachana. The Jain Agamas available today are in the form of the Agamas compiled in this Vachana.
The available Agamas are accepted by the Shvetambar tradition of Jainism. Their authenticity is not accepted in the Digambar tradition. There, it is believed that the Anga literature was lost 683 years after the Nirvana of Bhagwan Mahavira. They do not accept any text as a direct word-by-word concordance of the principles spoken by Mahavira. According to their belief, in the early centuries AD, an Acharya named Dharasen had a portion of the text preceding the Drishtivad Anga. He lived in the Chandragupta cave on Mount Girnar. There, he had two knowledgeable monks, Pushpadant and Bhootbali, write down his knowledge. This is known as the Shatkhandagama. It is revered as an Agama in the Digambar tradition. The two monks presented the written Shatkhandagama to the assembly on the fifth day of the bright half of the month of Jyeshtha. That day was considered an important day for the coming to light of the Shruta. It became famous as Shruta Panchami. Shruta Panchami is an important religious festival of the Digambar sect.