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THE EXTINCT AGAMAS OF THE JAINAS
In the end before I conclude this chapter, I may tentatively suggest why these are lost. As already noted, certain ajjhayanas are satisaya,1 and hence they were reserved to be studied by the selected few only-the few who were not going to misuse them. As the number of these persons slowly and slowly became less and less owing to the vicious period we are passing through, according to the Jaina tradition it naturally brought about the extinction of the ajjhayanas in question. As regards the rest, it appears that they must have fallen into oblivion owing to the lack of interest on the part of those who had to study them.
This finishes the exposition about the extinct Agamas whose number will go on increasing so much so that only four2 of them will exist up to the end of the present tirtha,3 and thereafter they, too, will perish, and thus there will remain no Agamas whatsoever till a new epoch will dawn with the flourishing of Tirthankaras in India when the dvādaśāngis etc. will be again composed. So says the Jaina tradition.
1 For instance Mahāparinṇā (p. 82), Arunovavāya (p. 106), Uṭṭhānasuya (p. 107) and Samuṭṭhānasuya (p. 107) are some of them.
Of them Dasaveyaliya will be avilable only in meaning.
" वासाण सहस्सेण य एकवीसाए इहं 'भरह' वासे । दसवेयालियअत्थो दुप्पसहजइंमि नासिहीति ॥ ५० ॥" " इगवीससहस्साहं वासाणं वीरमोक्खगमणाओ । अव्वोच्छिन्नं होही आवस्सगं जाव तित्थं तु ॥ ५२ ॥ इगवीससहस्साइं वासाणं वीरमोक्खगमणाओ । अणुओगदार-नंदी अव्वोच्छिन्नाउ जा तित्थं ॥ ५३ ॥ -Titthogālī as suggested in Vividhapraśnottara (p. 188).
2
3
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