History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

SR No.: 006541
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal R Kapadia, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 322
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & History
File Size: 17 MB

Page 78

CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE ĀGAMAS
61 So much for the Āgamas of the śvetāmbaras. The Digambaras, too, divide their Āgamas into two classes: (i) anga-pravista and (ii) angabāhya. The former has 12 sub-divisions, and their names almost tally with those of the 12 Angas. The latter has many sub-divisions, kālika and utkālika being chief of them. Uttarādhyayana is mentioned in this connection in Tattvärtharajavartika (p. 54); but it is there neither specifically referred to as kālika nor utkālika. Turning to Tattvārthasaradīpikāl, we learn that Parikarma, one of the five sections of Drstivāda, includes works such as Candraprajñapti, Sūryaprajñapti and Jambūdvīpaprajñapti. The anga-bāhya group is said to consist of 14 works, each of which is styled as Prakīrņaka. The first four of them are entitled as Sāmāyika, Caturvimśatistava, Vandana and Pratikramana. These seem to correspond with the four sections of Āvassaya out of six. The other works worth noting are : Daśavaikālika, Uttarādhyayana and Kalpa-Vyavahāra since they remind us of the corresponding works of the Svetāmbaras.
It may be mentioned that the Digambaras believe that it is long since that all the canonical treatises of the Jainas have been lost, and the Svetāmbara canonical works are not genuine. Besides, the Digambaras have a secondary canon or a substitute canon. This canon which is spoken of as the four Vedas, consists of works of a later date. These works are divided into 4 anuyogas. As for example, the Purāņas or the legendary works like Padmapurāna, Harivamsa-purana, Mahāpurāna, Uttara-purāņa etc. are looked upon as forming a group known as prathamānuyoga. Similarly cosmological works such as Sūryaprajñapti, Candraprajñapti etc. come under the group karaṇānuyoga. The works on the dārśanika (philosophical) literature e.g. Kundakunda's Pavayaņasāra, Umāsvāti's Tattvārtha, Samantabhadra's Aptamīmāṁsā etc., form the third group styled as dravyānuyoga. Ritualistic works like Vattakera's Mülāyāra and Trivarnācāra, Samantabhadra's
1. On the basis of this work a complete survey of the canonical treatises of the
Digambaras is given in Bhandarkar's Report for 1883-4, p. 106 ff. As stated in A History of Indian Literature (Vol. II, p. 473 n) this may be compared with Weber, HSS.-verz. II, 3, 823 f., Guérinot, p. xxx f., and J. L. Jaini's preface (p. 12 ff.) to Sacred Books of the Jainas (S.B.J.) (vol. V).