________________
II
TEACHINGS
1
The teachings of Mahavira have come down to us as a living tradition which grew up and took a complete literary form through ten centuries from his demise This tradition was up to a certain date known as fourteen Purvas The fourteen Purvas themselves presuppose the existence of an earlier ten that had embodied the religious tradition of Parsva and formed, as we are led to think by a legend in the Bhagavati-Sūtra, a common basis of the Jaina and Ajivika Canons The gradual loss of those Purvas may be accounted for by the rise of the sacred books of the Jaina Canon, -the Siddhanta or Agama by way of compilations from time to time The process of compilation passed through a few stages till it was stopped with the preparation of a final redaction of the Canon at the council of Valabhi, under the presidency of Arya Devarddhi, in 454 (or 467) A D.1 The casual references to the books representing various divisions of the said Canon seem suggest a stratification of the Angas, the Upangas, 1 Jaina-Sutras, Part I, Introd, p xxxvii.
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