Ardha Magadhi Reader

Author(s): B D Jain
Publisher: Shri Satguru Publications

Page 45

( xliii) council of monks at Pátaliputra and collected the eleven Angas from the fragments remembered by various monks. The twelfth Anga was lost for ever.
The stricter monks į e. those who had migrated to other countries during the famine, rejected this collection alleging that the true scriptures had been irretrievably lost. This must have added strength to the party-feeling which afterwards resulted in the final break-up of the church into Digambars and Svetámbars.
The canon thus restored continued but not in a quite fixed state till the time of Devardhigapi Kshamásramana when again there occurred a severe famine lasting for many years. A large number of learned monks were swept away by this dreadful and long famine. In addition to this, a serious interruption was caused in the study of the scriptures which eventually reached the verge of oblivion,
At the end of the famine Devardhigani saw that the scriptures were in a danger of becoming extinct, he therefore, summoned at Valabhi (an ancient town in Kathiawad) all the monks who had survived, and collected from them what had been saved of the canon. He used his discretion to fill up the gaps
1 (ATU AFEHT ATT FCT * crfata i निर्वाहाय माधुसकुस्तीरं नीरनिधेर्ययौ ॥१५॥ अगुरयमानं तु तदा साधूनां विस्मृतं श्रुतम् । अनभ्यसनतो नश्यत्यधीतं धीमतामपि ॥१६॥ सडोग्य पाटलीपुत्रे दुष्कालान्तेऽखिलो ऽमिलत् । यह भनाधायनोद्देशाद्यासीद् यस्य तद् भाददे ॥७॥
Hemavandra's Sthavirávali, Canto. IX.