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Post-Mahāvīra Period and the Contribution of Jainism
and others were also recorded.276 But this council failed to trace the twelfth anga which was said to have contained the pūrvas.277
Review of the Jaina canon
The traditional Jaina canon, thus, consists of two sets — the Svetāmbara canon and the Digambara canon. The Digambaras claim to have preserved in their canonical texts most of the twelfth anga and its pūrvas together with fragments from the other angas.278 The Svetāmbaras claim that they have preserved most of the remaining eleven añgas in their sūtras.279 A comparative study of the Svetāmbara and the Digambara canon reveals considerable similarity. Both of them inherited and drew from a common stock which existed before the split in the Jaina Samgha; this is proved by many verses and passages which are common in both sets.280
The tradition about the angas and the fourteen pūrvas is common to both sects of Jainism; both hold the angas in equal esteem.281 The names of some of the texts of the Angabāhiras of the Digambaras and the Mūla-sūtras and the Cheda-sūtras of the Svetāmbaras are similar.282 Examples can be multiplied. 283
Contribution of Jainism
In the course of its long history Jainism has made a remarkable contribution to Indian culture. The period from the fifth century AD to the tenth century
276. LDJC, p. 33; HJM, p. 21; CA, p. 411. The Jaina canon took its final shape in the Second
Council at Valabhi. See CA, p. 411. 277. HJM, p. 21. 278. JSAI, p. 15. 279. Ibid. 280. Ibid. 281. HJM, p. 36. 282. Ibid. 283. For further similarity between the canon of the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras see
HJM, pp. 36-7.
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