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took a course of development on the analogy of atomic combination. Likewise, the classification and character-analysis of beings in the broad cosmographical outlines were taking place during this third canonical stage. It is therefore easy to presume that numerous passages pertaining to these fields must have been composed during this period, which directly developed into the thought system recorded in the texts belonging to the fourth canonical stage.
The number of texts falling in the pre-third stage is very small, and must have in reality been larger. However, since philosophization by the Jainas in the ontological field (jiva-pudgala including karma and the relevant ethical subject matters) and the formulation of cosmography began in the third stage, the passages composed in the pre-third stage would not have been so large and even negligible in comparison with the supposedly bulky passages composed during the third canonical stage.
The pre-Prajnapana theoretical and conceptual contents of jiva, pudgala, karma and loka-aloka are only locatable in the Bhagavati, which could have been systematically compiled in the form of a Pannatti text inasmuch as the SuryaCandra p. was compiled in the field of cosmography in the third canonical stage. We may assume that there was such a plan which did not materialize, probably because all conclusive accounts came to be culminated in the Prajnapana. And what remains with us at present is a thoroughly reduced collection of bare fragmentary passages on these subject matters. These supposedly numerous materials in the third canonical stage must have then existed in the form of a sizable collection of fragmentary passages in a state of presystematization.
If these materials were in a state of pre-systematization, it is not at all strange to find therein various miscellaneous passages falling outside the said main subject fields. A small number of materials handed down from the pre-third canonical stage must have likewise been jumbled together in the same collection. It thus seems that the Bhagavati nucleus texts consisted of a small number of pre-third stage texts, which include the texts on ethics and conduct, and a huge number of the third stage texts, the essential concern of which was the subject matter handled in the Pannatti texts. In other words, the Bhagavati nucleus largely consisted of the texts composed in the third canonical stage.
Since the nucleus materials were not codified into an independent work, they must have been handed down as they were. Then, gradually added to this collection were the texts falling in the subsequent stages. However, numerous texts must have been filtered out in the course of time, being unable to cope. with the theoretically more advanced positions reached at each given period of time. And in the course of this filtration, the nature of the Bhagavati
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