Agam 26 Prakirnak 03 Maha Pacchakhana Sutra

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Agam Ahimsa Samta Evam Prakrit Samsthan

Page 14

PREFACE : XII
The above-mentioned classification, found in the Nandisūtra, mentions only nine Prakirnakas in all under the Kālika or Utkālika sūtras. Of these two names - Rsībhăsita and Dvīpasāgara-prajñapti are found under the classification of Kālika Āgamas or the timely studiable canonical texts and the rest seven - Devendrastava, Tandulavaicārika, Candrakavedhyaka, Ganīvidyā, Maranavibhakui, Aturapratyākhyāna and Mahāpratyākhyāna - are found under the Utkālika Agamas or the anytime studiable scriptures. This classification, thus mentions the Mahāpratyākhyāna Prakirnaka as the seventh Prakīrnaka or the twenty-eighth sūtra in the Utkālika category. Though the style of classification adopted in the Pāksikasūtra is somewhat different in respect of names and the order, there too the Mahāpratyākhyāna-Prakirnaka appears at the twenty-eighth position among the Utkālika sūtras only.
Besides these, we find another ancient style of classifying Agamas in Mülācāra, a Sauraseni Agama of the Yāpanīya tradition. Mūlācāra divides the Āgamās into four categories + - 1. Prophet preached (Tīrtharkara kathita), 2. Self-enlightened preached (Pratyekabuddha kathita), 3. Canon-omniscient composed (Śrutakevali kathita) and 4. Those composed by the masters or elders learned in Pürvas (Pūrvadhara kathita). Again, in Mūlācara, these canonical texts have been classified as timely studiable - Kālika and any time studiable - Utkālika. However, the Mahāpratyā"hyāna-Prakīrnaka has not been
3 (a) Nandisutra, Ed. Muni Madhukara, Āgama Prakāśana Samiti,
Beawar, 1982, pp 161-162. (b) Pāksikasūtra, Devacandra Lālbhai Jain Putakoddhara Fund, p. 76. Mūlācāra, Bhāratīya Jñānapītha, verse 277.