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Some Noteworthy Features ...
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occurs in 13.9 where various theories of world-creation are summarily and jointly refuted by asserting that the world never perishes--and so is never created at all). Thus in Sūtrakrtānga I as in Acārānga I the only ontological thesis typical of Jainas is one according to which the types of living beings are six in all.
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In connection with epistemology nothing is to be added to what has already been said,
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Sütrakrtänga I is certainly acquainted with more mythological potions than Ācāränga I, but here too certain points are noteworthy:
(1) The concepts of an auspicious next birth among gods occurs in rather suspicious verses – viz. 2. 3. 13; 15. 16; 15, 24.
(2) The concept of an in auspicious next birth among gods occurs in 1. 3. 16 and 2. 3. 9
(3) In 2. 15 the list of mythological species contains the items deva, gandharva, räkşasa, asura, in 12. 13 it contains the items sura, gandharva. rākşasa, yamalokin - both sets unfamiliar to the later Jaina speculation.
(4) In the course of describing hells (e. g. in 5. 1. 6) paramādhamin gods are mentioned and they are familiar to the later Jaina speculation.
(5) The eulogy of Mabāvira contains several mythological concepts familiar to the later Jaina speculation, e. g. Sudarsana (=Meru) parvata (6.9). Damdakavana 6. 10, Āyata parvata Nişadha and Vartula parvata Rucaka (6, 15). Svayambhū-samudra and Nagendra Dharana ( 6. 20) Lavasaptama deva and Sudharma Sabha (6. 24 ),
For the rest, there is little typically Jaina about the mythological noti. ons - including the so many occuring in the Chapter on hells and that on Mahāvïra - contained in Sūtrakrtānga I
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So many times does Sūtrakřtānga I attribute a teaching to Mabā vir (called by the names Mahavira, Kaśyapa, Jñāta, Brāhmana and the like) either at the begining of a chapter (or section ) (e. g. in 5. 1. 1-2. 9. 1. 11. 1). or at its end (e. g. in l. I. 27, 2.3, 22, 3.3. 20) or somewhere in the middle of it (e. g in 2.2. 26, 11. 32, 15, 21). It is essentially a quesa tion of literary manner igen and means nothing more than that the author believed the teaching concerned to have been originated from Mahāvıra. That is to say, unlike the later Jain authors our text has not developed a special mythological theory as to how Mabāvīra is the source of all that Jainisin has to teach on this question or that.
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