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Jain Mantravada and Caityavasis M ANTRAS and Vidyās* are said to have covered the whole of IV the tenth Pūrva entitled Vidyānupravāda+ of the fourteen Pūrvas forming the major portion of the Jain Canonical literature. These Pūrvas were very huge in volume and encyclopaedic in character. They are all lost now. According to the Jain tradition the whole of the Jain Canonical literature was comprised in twelve Angasx and the whole Pūrva literature was comprised in the twelth Anga.t Only the first eleven Angas are now available as compiled by Sri Devardhi Gaņi Ksamāsramana 980 or 993 years after the Nirvāṇa of Lord Mahāvíra i. e. 454 or 467 A. D.
ŚRI PARÁVANĂTHA AND PORVA LITERATURE.
'Pūrva' means 'ancient and the literature going under that name must therefore be considered to be older than the rest. The
*For all practical purposes Mantras and Vidyās are the same. A technical distinction is however drawn between them that in the former the presiding deity is a male and in the latter a female or that Sădhnā is strictly ceremonious in the latter but not so in the former. See Viśeşāvaśyaka Bhāşya and Avaśyaka Niryukti V. 931 + The commentary on Samyàyàpga Adh. XIV explains Vidyānupravāda thus: "aaaaar fagfastur auzi-a argaguaigh | That is, Vidyānupravaca wherein are described many kinds of miracles caused by Vidyās (magic). The contents also of all the fourteen Pūryas are there described. See also commentary on Nandisutra, Sūtra 56. According to the Digambaras the 10th Pūrva contained 500 Mahåvidyās (great Vidyās) named Rohini and others, and 700 Alpavidyās (small Vidyās) such as Angușthaprasena (questioning through the thumb) and others, and eight Mahānimittas or great omens or modes of divination. (See Introduction to Satkhandăgama Vol. II p. 52 and Mallişenasüri's Vidyanus'asana Ch. III vv. 18–79.) * See Samavāyānga Adh I for enumeration of the twelve Angas. +Winternitz says the twelth Anga contained only the remanants of the fourteen Purvas collected together at the Council of Pataliputra about 170 years after Nirvana of Sri Mahavira. (P.432 History of Indian Literature Vol. II). The contents described in commentaries on Samavāyānga and Nandisūtra however tell a different story.
ayanga and Nandu erature Vol. II). Th. years after Nirvana
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