Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
## Introduction
[101] It has been stated that the subject matter of the Maha-kamma-payādi-pāhuḍa was very extensive, and it was being transmitted through the Acharya-parampara in the form of gāthās, which were composed or compiled for easy memorization. The portion of it that was received by Acharya Śivasarma was collected by him in his 'Kamma-payādi-sangahaṇī'. Similarly, the Acharyas who preceded him, received the subject matter from their Guru-parampara, and they compiled it in gāthās so that the inquisitive people could memorize it.
Upon examining all the available Jain literature, our attention was drawn to a text that bears complete resemblance to the first part of the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama, Jīvasthāna, in terms of its style of composition. The author of this text is still unknown, but it is known as the Pūrva-bhṛt-sūri-sūtrita. Its name is Jīvasamāsa.
* It contains a total of 286 gāthās and describes the Jīva in the same way as the first part of the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama, Jīvasthāna, through the same eight Anuyoga-dvāras, namely Satyarūpaṇā, Dravya-pramāṇānugam, etc. The only difference is that while describing the Jīva in the Jīvasamāsa, it mentions one or two Mārgṇās by way of instruction and states that the Dhira, Vira, and Śruta-jñāna people should infer the rest of the Mārgṇās. However, in the Jīvasthāna of the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama, a detailed description of all the Mārgṇā-sthānas is found in each Prarūpaṇā. This is the reason why the description that is given in 286 gāthās here is given in 1860 sūtras in the Jīvasthāna.
In the Jīvasamāsa, before describing the eight Prarūpaṇās in detail and by way of instruction, a detailed discussion of many fundamental aspects of each Prarūpaṇā is given, which is not found in the Jīvasthāna. However, it is found in the Dhavala Tīkā. There are about 111 gāthās in total that deal with such specific topics. After subtracting them from 286, only 175 gāthās remain, which contain a detailed and clear description of the eight Prarūpaṇās in the form of sūtras. This leads to the conclusion that the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama-kāra has explained these 175 gāthās in 1860 sūtras.
Here, one may doubt that the Jīvasamāsa-kāra might have summarized the detailed and extensive description of the Jīvasthāna of the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama. Just as the author of the Gommaṭasāra, Nemicandra-ācārya, summarized the Dhavala and Jayadhavala Tīkās. However, the solution to this doubt is that firstly, the author of the Gommaṭasāra has clearly mentioned his name in it.
* This has been published in its original form along with a collection of various texts.