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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
mathematics ( ganiya ), grammar (vagarana ) and the art of writing would be taught by them. 1 There is an instance when a monk requests his Ācārya to explain him the Chedasūtras, for he had forgotten the portion of the Chedasūtras being involved in the study of grammar ( sadda, vīgaraņa ) and the Hetušāstra of Akşapāda, i. e. the Nyāya system of Indian philosophy.2 The accounts of Yuan Chwang and I-Tsing also reveal that these various sciences were widely mastered by the Jainas, the Brāhmins and the Buddhists of the time. According to Dasgupta, the monastic university of the Jainas had three sections-Jaina scriptures, Vedic study and Arts." It is, however, beyond cognition as to how the latter two were imparted to the students in the Jaina monastic universities.
Curriculum in the Jaina monasteries depended on the specific period of initiation ( dīksā-paryāya ). The NC. does not enlighten us on the curriculum followed at a particular stage. It only mentions that the advanced texts of the canon ( uvarilla ) were to be taught after the monks had mastered the primary texts ( hetthilla ).5 The rules of the monastic life, which comprised the initial part of the canon, was taught first and the texts dealing with the exception to rules (avavāda) were disclosed to a monk only after he had reached a certain stage of development in the spiritual field.
Āyara, the first Anga of the Jaina canon, consisted of the nine ajjhayaņas, each known as Bambhacera and was appended with
1. जति जोइस निमित्तं छंदं गणियं वा अम्हं कहेस्सह अण्णं वा किं चि पावसुत्तं वागरणादि
NC. 4, p. 36. 2. सद्देत्ति व्याकरणं, हेतुसत्थं अक्खपादादि, एवमादि अहिज्जतो छेदसुत्तं णिसीहादि ण
NC. 4, p. 88. 3. According to Yuan Chwang,children at the age of seven were regularly
taught five sciences among the Buddhists, viz. Science of grammar, skilled professions, astrology, medicine and the sicnece of eternal.--
Watters, op. cit., 1, pp. 154-55; Beal, op. cit., 1, pp. 78-79. 4. Dasgupta, op. cit., p. 15. 5. NC. 4, p. 252. 6. &feat 3Fgar af staten gaffect 3faatagal 1-Ibid.
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