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of ascetics. Marked differences in language and style of the two can be seen. The first book is also famous as Nava Brahmacharya Adhyayan (the study of new Brahmacharya). In the ancient times the term Brahmacharya was used to convey a much wider meaning. Soul is also called Brahma. Therefore, to dwell in soul is also called Brahmacharya. All the contents of the first book are directed at soul. It contains various forms of practices of dwelling in the self, therefore it is believed that when Acharanga was divided into two books the first one came to be popularly known as Nava Brahmacharya Adhyayan and the second as Achar Chula (Compendium of Conduct).
The first book contains nine chapters. The seventh chapter, Mahaparinna is believed to be extinct; thus only eight chapters are available. According to the belief in Digambar tradition, Acharanga became completely extinct with the last of the Acharangadhar (scholars of Acharanga) acharyas. However, the belief in the Shvetambar tradition is that Acharanga was not lost completely, only some portions of it were lost. For this there are many reasons including loss of the acharyas who had absorbed knowledge of canons, general decline in the capacity to remember, devastating effects of droughts and negligence of scribes.
The Jain historians opine that till the time of Vajra Swami (first century Vikram) Mahaparinna chapter was intact. Vajra Swami had quoted about the special skill of moving in the sky or levitation from this chapter which contained details about many other such special powers and mantras. With passage of time acharyas proscribed its reading and teaching. There are chances that at the time of writing the first commentaries (Churni and Niryukti) the chapter was available. But it had become extinct at the time of Acharya Shilank Suri, the commentator (Tika), during the eighth century V. Thus, it became extinct sometime during the intervening period. THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF ACHARANGA
Acharanga is mainly a book of conduct. But it is not a scripture in the style of Dashavaikalik or Uttaradhyayan Sutras. These two
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