________________
239
offered by
Viyahacūliyā or Vivāhaculiya, which from its description Schubring' seems to have nothing to do with our Bhagavati.
645
The analysis made above itself answers the question, "What is the position of the Bhagavati in the Jaina canonical literature?" The Bhagavati or the fifth Anga of the Jainas represents the fundamental Jaina doctrinal system of jivaajiva developed during the long canonical age. By receiving the system of thought developed in the pre-Bhagavati age, the Bhagavati developed it into the typical Jaina doctrinal system of jiva-ajiva which essentially distinguishes the Jaina School from the other philosophical schools. The T.S. which crowns the theoretical achievement made in the canonical age came directly from the later thoughts expressed in the Bhagavati that embraces the other major Pannatti texts, as well as from the theory of knowledge current in the Nandi and Anuyogadvara that is again the specialized line of development following in the wake of the Bhagavati conceptual contents. In other words, the Bhagavati as it stands offers a panoramic record of the Jaina theoreticians' system of thought developed during the canonical period once they entered the stage of theorization, and this prepared the direction of thought developed in the postcanonical period. Its value in the Jaina canonical literature becomes at once obvious if we would imagine about the absence of the Bhagavati which is a treasure house of key texts pertaining to the evolution and development of the important concepts on jiva-ajiva. It is not at all surprising, then, that the Viyahapannatti came to be popularly called by the Jainas, both ascetic and lay, by its epithet 'Bhagavati'.
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