Heart of Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson

Page 42

16
HISTORICAL SUMMARY
not in the language of the learned but of the common people; and we who have our scriptures and our book of Common Prayer in our mother tongue can understand their pride.
The Svetambara do not, as a rule, allow their scriptures to be read by laymen, or even by nuns, but restrict the study of them to monks. The laity seem to read chiefly a book composed of quotations from their scriptures. The Sthānakavāsi are not so strict, and allow most of their sacred books to be read by the laity, but not the Chedagrantha, which they say were intended for the professed alone. The most popular of the books amongst the Sthanakavāsī laity are the Upāsaka Daśānga, the Acārānga Sūtra, and the Daśavaikālika. To judge by their preaching and lectures the Kalpa Sutra would seem to be the scripture most studied by the Svetambara sādhus.
The Digambara canon differs so entirely from the Śvetambara that it does not seem probable that the sect was represented at the great council of A. D. 454.
They call their scriptures their Four Veda, and members of their community at Mount Abu and at Pālitāṇā gave the writer a list of them in the following order:
1. Prathamānuyoga.
2. Karaṇānuyoga.
3. Caraṇānuyoga. 4. Dravyānuyoga.
Professor Jacobi adduces in proof of the antiquity of the Jaina scriptures, amongst other things, the fact that they contain no reference to Greek astrology which was introduced into India in the third or fourth century A. D.
As we have already seen, it seems probable that, though the canon of the scriptures had been fixed in 300 B. C. by the council of Pataliputra, they had not all been committed to writing, but had generally been handed down by word of mouth from teacher to disciple; the result, however, of the