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
and of which the composition does not go beyond 2550 years!. It is a pity that we do not possess even a list regarding the scriptures codified at the Valabhī council, convoked by Devarddhi Gani. So our attempt, however serious and sincere it may be, to make a note of all these extinct works cannot yield the desired result. Even then it should be made so that we can have at least a glimpse of the works lost to us by this time. This endeavour of ours would have been surely facilitated, and the results we are going to arrive at would have been quite precise in case a scientific Catalogus catalogorum of Jaina manuscripts had been prepared and published by this time. In the absence of such a source, it now remains to examine the Jaina works wherein incidentally a loss of some work or works may have been noted; but owing to the want of sufficient time and free access to printed and unprinted works, a thorough investigation of these materials is not possible for the present writer. Even then an attempt is being made in this direction with the hope that it will act as a stimulus to others finally leading them to a complete success in view of the thorough investigation of this problem they may be inclined to carry out in near future.
Broadly speaking we can divide the Agamas into two groups: the Angas and the Painnagas. The number of the former is fixed as 12; but such is not precisely the case with the latter, if the number 14000 is not taken to be correct. Anyhow the examination regarding the latter is more difficult than the former. We shall therefore proceed with the first group first. Therein we find that Ditthivāya is lost, though not, all of a sudden. To be quite explicit, I may mention some of the details that throw light in this direction.
It was in the time of Bhadrabāhusvāmin that Magadha had to face the calamity resulting from a twelve-year famine. This seriously affected the study of the Jaina saints who could hardly get sufficient alms even by begging from door to door. This resulted in their forgetting Ditthivāya-a fact those saints became conversant with, when they assembled after subhiksā had set in, and durbhikṣā had disappeared. Thereupon, they sent a pair of Munis, technically known as sanghātaka to Bhadrabāhusvāmin who was practising mahāprāna in Nepal; for, he was the only one who was then in a position to remember and teach Ditthivāya. He, however, declined to teach Ditthivāya on the ground that he was then engaged in practising mahāprāna, a dhyāna, he could not attend
1. That some portion is lost is certain; for, in the extant literature, there is no mention
of an āyāgapata. Futher, there is no reference to Khāravela except in Himavanta Therāvali.