Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

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VI The early fifth stage (latter half of 4th century A.D.) Jambudvipa p., Duipasagara p. and Pranavyakarana
The fifth stage (latter half of 4th 5th centuries A.D.) The rest of the Angabahya texts
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The 12 Angas including five story texts abové must have been authorized in the fourth canonical stage, which we shall discuss in Section V. Thus these five Angic story texts should be logically placed in the fourth stage. However, the later interpolations made in these Angic story books are finely woven into the refined form of stories, which makes it quite difficult to stratify their layers. These texts are after all the products of retouching made in the fifth canonical stage, and some stories therein must have been composed in the early fifth canonical stage. For this reason, we assign them to the fourth-early fifth canonical stages. On the other hands, the Prajnapana that is also fully beset with the later accretions is essentially a theoretical treatise, of which it will be possible to separate the chronological layers in the future. We thus allot this text to the fourth canonical stage at present.
The date of Mahavira's nirvana, which may fall in the 6-5th centuries B.C., is still debatable. The Acara I which was composed after his nirvana conveys his original teachings at large, and therefore the upper limit of the age of the first stage is placed in the 6-5th centuries B.C. The upper limit of the date of the second canonical stage is fixed by the traditional date of Bhadrabahu I who is known to have composed some of these old Chedasutras. The upper limit of the date of the third stage is difficult to determine, and it is assigned above on the basis of a speculation on the age when the theory of atoms began to gain circulation in Jaina circles.' The lower limit of the date of the SuryaCandra p. seems to fall in the early 3rd century A.D.2
The lower limit of the date of the fourth stage can be roughly fixed by the date of the Second Canonical Convention held at Mathura and Valabhi. According to tradition, the Second Canonical Convention was held at these two places almost simultaneously in 300 A.D. or 313 A.D., but both dates are open to question. We would at present propose a date somewhere between the first quarter and the second quarter of the 4th century A.D., i.e., by the late former half of the 4th century A.D." The Jivajivabhigama nucleus and the Prajnapana document the corollaries of the theoretical thought contents of the Jainas developed by that time, for the compilation of which allowance of a quarter to half a century would be sufficient, even allowing for some temporal distance existing between these two texts. We would thus assign the fourth canonical stage roughly to the former half of the 4th century A.D.
7 The lower limit of the age of the fifth canonical stage is to be demarcated by