History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

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A HISTORY OF THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
at best terminus ad quem as the date of the śāśtras but taking it to be the same as terminus a quo. In short, the dates of the composition of the various sästras codified are much earlier than the date of their codification though it is true that the dates of the new portions that may have been then incorporated in the sāstras are the same as that of the codification.
There is another pitfall one should be beware of. Some of the Digambaras maintain that all the canonical treatises got forgotten during the 12 years of famine in the reign of Candragupta Maurya, and the canon as shaped at Pāțaliputra by the Śvetāmbaras is at best a patch-work and is not genuine. They believe that the end of the Vira Saṁvat 683 or so marks the complete extinction of the Jaina canon. This sounds very strange; for, one can understand if some works or their parts get forgotten in course of time, in adverse circumstances; but a sweeping remark that not even an iota of the Jaina canon survived the year Vira Samvat 683 or so passes comprehension, unless it may be due to a miracle or a catastrophe of terrible intensity. So far as I know, there is no record or reference to any such thing in the annals of the Indian History! No migration of the Jainas is referred to as leaving this land for some other country as was the case with the Zoroastrians who left their native land as suggested by scholars, on being persecuted by the followers of a different faith. Even then, they do possess at least some fragments of their Holy scriptures. Moreover, there is no mention to any political or social revolution - a cataclysm that seriously disturbed the atmosphere. Even granting that any one or more of the catastrophes here alluded to or the like may have befallen the unlucky, how is it that it could produce such a terribly adverse effect only so far as the knowledge of the Jaina canon was concerned, whereas it failed to produce any perceptible effect on the Holy
1. There is no mention of any overflowing of the banks by some gigantic river or that of
the shores by the Arabian sea or the Indian ocean leading to the submersion of the country all around and the consequent death of each and every one who knew the Jaina canon in part or entirety. No deluge is referred to as submerging this subcontinent. There is no reference to any volcanic eruption of which the lava reduced the surroundings to nothing. No conflagration laying its cruel hands on the country inhabited by the Jainas, is mentioned to have occurred. No earthquake on a huge or small scale is referred to as having brought about the ruins of the Jainas. Nowhere the
crust of the earth seems to have given way swallowed all it could lay hand on. 2. Cf. History of Zoroastrianism by Dastur Dr. M. N. Dhalla (Oxford University Press, New
York). In its review published in the moffusil edn. of the "Times of India" dated 15th oct., 1938 it is said : "The History of Zoroastrianism falls into three well-defined linguistic periods: The Gathic, the later Avestan and the Pahalvi. Its beginning is lost in the mist of forgotten ages, and the scriptures that have survived are only blurred and broken fragments."-P.B. V.