Jain Society Houston TX 1995 11 Pratistha

SR No.: 528921
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Society Houston TX
Publisher: USA Jain Society Houston TX
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 218
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, USA_Souvenir Jain Center TX Houston, & USA
File Size: 9 MB

Page 90

Celebrating Jain Society of Houston Pratishtha Mahotsav 1995
3. STHANANGA is concerned not with the teachings of Mahavira but with a miscellaneous collection of matters arranged in categories.
Collectively, the canonical works recognized by the Svetambaras are known as Agama. The number of these texts is not quite fixed, but is taken by most as 45 (though the Sthanakvasi, the non-image worshipping sect, recognizes only 32). The oldest texts are the Angas, believed to have been originally 12, but only 11 survive. The word Anga means a limb, that is a part of the canon. The remaining 34 texts are called Angbahya; they are regarded as subsidiary to the Anga collection. There are 12 Upanga texts which parallel the 12 Angas. Then there are 10 Prakirnas, six Chedasutras four Mulasutras, and two Chullkasutras.
4. SAMAVAYANGA (probably one of the latest), is similar.
5. VYAKHYAPRAJNAPTI The most important anga, this gives a wide-ranging survey of the teachings of Mahavira, largely in the form of answers to questions given by Mahavira to his close disciple Gautama Indrabhuti. There is a great deal of incidental information on society and political history near the time of Mahavira. The life of Gosala, leader of the Ajivikas, is given. (The Ajivikas were a rival religious group arising around the time of Mahavira and the Buddha, and surviving at least to the twelfth century AD.)
6. NAYADHAMMAKAHAO is more readable than many Jain scriptures as it contains a lot of improving stories. For example, Mahavira expounds the virtue of patience by telling how, as an elephant in a previous incarnation, he patiently protected a hare beneath his uplifted foot.
Let us now look at the contents of the Angas. Needless to say, this is only a very sketchy summary, extensive commentaries have been written by later writers on these texts, described as curni, niljutti, bhasa, as well as various other explanatory writings. One difficulty is that the names of these scriptures take various different forms, as the title may be given in Sanskrit or Prakrit. Problems of Romanization of Indian languages add to the complications. Modem critical scholarship, Jain and non-Jain (including the work of European scholars), has done much to elucidate the process of compilation of these texts, without detracting from their religious importance, and has shown that they are generally made up of various sections brought into order, and put together in many cases a considerable time after they were originally produced. Here, then, are the eleven surviving angas. They are, of course, in the Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, and they were transmitted for many centuries in manuscripts written on palm leaf strips often held together by cords. When paper came into use, the same oblong shape was retained, and this continued in modern printed editions. Many of these have been translated into European languages, especially German and English, though the translated versions are not always easy to come by.
7. UPASAKADASA Ten (dasa) accounts of pious layman in Mahavira's time.
8. ANTAKRDDASA Various narratives, grouped partly in tens, and referring in many cases to the time of the twenty-second Tirthankara, Aristanemi, said to have been the contemporary of Krishna.
9. ANUTTAROPAPATIKADASA Also in ten parts: two only are of real interest and originality, these concern persons reborn in the highest heavens.
1. ACARANGA This is certainly one of the oldest texts, though it was not all composed at the same time. The contents are varied, dealing with, amongst other matters, ahlmsa, the life of Mahavira, and rules for the conduct of monks. Much incidental detail of life in early India may be found in the text.
10. PRASNAVYAKARANA The titles of the two parts of this work are Asvara (inflow of karma) and Samvara (cessation of inflow). The five great sins and the five great renunciations appear, together with much information on social life of ancient times, crime, and punishment and other topics.
2. SUTRAKRTANGA This anga contains much detail on non-Jain philosophical systems. Like other texts it contains a variety of material: the different forms of life are described in one section, the hells and their tortures in another.
11. VIPAKASRUTA Two groups of ten quite readable stories illustrating the consequences of karma, respectively evil and good.
12. The 12th Anga has been lost.
"The finest path to salvation is gaining possession of the 3 Gems: Perfect Vision, Perfect Knowledge, and Perfect Character
(Author Unknown)
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