Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

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

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studied as their essential tenet. The position of jiva-ajiva as such must have been recognized in the final canonical stage, when the realities of the Jainas called pancastikayas-cum-addhasamaya were firmly established and when the Jaina church construction was thoroughly accomplished. The designation of the content of the Jivabhigama as the Jivajivabhigama, by referring for its total content of ajiva to the Prajnapana, must have been made in the same circle of thought, in order to proclaim it as a treatise of the essential doctrinal system of the Jainas.
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The 12 Angas which are the basic sacred texts of the Jainas, ascetic as well as lay, do not include these Pannatti texts, which deal with the doctrine of jivaajiva developed in the fourth stage through early fifth canonical stage. In order to proclaim and authorize that the doctrine of jiva-ajiva constitutes the cardinal doctrinal system for all the Jainas, it was best if all these Pannatti texts were incorporated in some way into the Bhagavati or the fifth Anga." The Bhagavati as such, then, represents the total Jaina doctrinal system of jiva-ajiva developed during the long canonical age. The composition of X-sutras on a massive scale in the Bhagavati was made, in all probability, with such aim and intention held by the authorities of the Third Valabhi Council. The other important Angabahya texts were not absorbed by the Bhagavati, because they take up specialized fields of knowledge and thereby fall outside the range of a Pannatti text handling the generic problems of jiva-ajiva.
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Group C We have described at the beginning of this chapter the summaritical features of Satakas XXI-XLI, which formally distinguish themselves from the previous twenty satakas, and thereby were placed after them. The contents treated here largely belong to the middle or the late fifth canonical stage. However, XXI - XX II and XXIV are easily transferable to the earlier 'satakas. Also if we compare the anuyoga items used in Satakas XXI-XLI with those employed in IV. 4.238 and X V1.1.615 (cf.C-1b), the latter stands in the more advanced position than the former.
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From all this, it is difficult to assume that Group C was composed later than Groups A and B, because some texts in Group A and the majority of X-sutras in Group B were obviously composed after the texts in Group C. It is thus more plausible to conclude that the composition of the texts falling in all these three groups was simultaneous in the final canonical stage. Those belonging to Group C were placed after the former twenty 'satakas due to their distinct formal feature, most probably according to the decision of the Third Valabhi Council. The final filtration and selection of non-X-sutras in Satakas I-XX and the final addition of X-sutras on a massive scale must have likewise been made by the Third Valabhi Council.