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and that there was disorderliness into it, they assembled and established order in it. No documentation occurred during the first recension but during the second and third conferences, most of the scriptures, commentaries, and other works were documented.
01
Recension Place
Patliputra Recension 02 Mathura and Vallabhi Recensions 03 Vallabhi Recension
Time @320 BC @380 AD @520 AD
First Vächanä in Patliputra (First Recension) The Order of the Jain monks assembled in Patliputra about 160 years after Bhagawan Mahävir's Nirvana, and also after a terrible famine, which lasted for many years. At that time, the middle region of the country (Madhyadesh) was under the sway of this severe famine causing the dispersion of Jain monks in various directions. Naturally, the Anga Agam fell into a bad state. The monks assembled after the famine, and asked one another what they could recollect and thus collected and arranged eleven of the twelve Angas. However, they found that nobody recollected the entire Drashtiväda, the twelfth Anga. At that time, Acharya Bhadrabahu alone possessed the knowledge of the Drashtiväda, but he had taken recourse to the yogic path of a special sort and was in Nepal. Therefore, the Jain community requested Achärya Sthulibhadra with many other monks to go to Bhadrabahu to learn the text of the Drashtiväda from him. The Drashtiväda, being the twelfth Anga Agam book, contained fourteen Purva-sutras. Of those monks, Sthulibhadra alone was successful in acquiring the knowledge of it. After acquiring the knowledge of ten Purvas, he misused the miraculous power earned through this. When Bhadrabahu came to know this, he stopped giving lessons to Sthulibhadra. After beseeching by Sthulibhadra and Sangha, he agreed to teach him only the text of remaining four Purvas, but he forbid Sthulibhadra to teach these four Purvas to others. As a consequence of this, there existed the knowledge of 14 Purvas up to Sthulibhadra. After his death, the Order possessed the knowledge of eleven Angas and only ten Purvas. Sthulibhadra's death occurred 215 years after Bhagawan Mahävir's Nirvana. In short, of the twelve Angas (Anga-pravishtha) composed by the Ganadhars, eleven Angas bereft of the four Purvas were recovered by the Order assembled at the first council. Second Vächanä in Vallabhipur and Mathura (Second Recension) After this twelve years long famine, the monks assembled in Mathura under the leadership of Arya Skandil and collected, and arranged the Kälik Shruta on the basis of what they could recall and recite. Since this Vächanä was done in Mathura, it is called Mathuri Vachana. This happened about 830 years after Bhagawan Mahävir's Nirvana. Synchronous with the council at Mathura, Acharya Nägärjun convened a council of monks at Vallabhi (Saurashtra) and tried to collect and arrange the Agams. Then they were written down and the recension was prepared after having corrected lengthy portions according to the context. The Vachana is called the Nägärjun Vächanä as well. Third Vächanä in Vallabhipur (Third Recension) The Penning Down of Agams by Devardhi-gani Then a council of monks presided over by Kshamä-shraman Devardhi-gani was held at Vallabhi (Saurashtra), 150 years after the councils presided over by Skandil and Nägärjun at Mathura and Vallabhi respectively. It was decided to document all available Prakirna Sutras, and preserve the Anga and other Sutras that were documented in the two former councils. In addition, the council was to bring uniformity
JAIN PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE - 2
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