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xxiii
The linking
might be available in those days. 21 of one scripture with another in a rigid form, the addition of artificial descriptions, the references and cross-references of scriptures within the body of their texts, the memorial verses in the beginning of every division of the scriptures and the highly mechanical way of narrating stories-are later developments when the scriptural texts were rigidly fixed.
Another question of the anachronistic reference of heroes being बारसंगी and एकारसंगी requires to be answered here. Personally I think that this mention merely formed a part in the statement of the mechanical conclusion. Moreover, the antiquity of the twelve scriptures, which the Jains felt about their compositions at the later date, would have made such references less poignant as anachronisms. Moreover, it is astonishing that even the highly rigorous disciples of Mahavira could dispense with the study of the twelfth scripture-of course Ditthivaya. It gives us a reason therefore to conclude that the twelfth scripture was considered proverbially comprehensible to only very few and that the seeds of its neglect were Sown very early. 21. In नंदीसूत्र, the list of the names of 14 qas given. See Charpentier. P. 12.
