History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 121

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THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
to have tackled this problem. I am probably the first to have done so in 1939 in Tattvarasikacandrikā (pt. I, pp. 52-55) in Gujarātī. I do not know if any one has even criticized my views by this time. Consequently once more I express them1 in this connection and request the veteran scholars to examine them and to give their verdict.
It appears that a work gets obliterated when its study ceases. If so, it means we should note how the 5 sections were being studied. It is well-nigh certain that the study of the 1st two sections preceded that of the rest. As regards Parikamma it seems that at least some persons carried on its study side by side with and that, too, ahead of the corresponding Puvva an inference I draw from Aryarakṣita Suri's episode. On this basis it can be suggested that the study of the Parikamma pertaining to each Puvva ended with the extinction of that Puvva; for, it was no use preparing the Parikamma of that Puvva which had ceased to exist. If this suggestion is correct it follows that the Parikamma associated with the study of the last 4 Puvvas became a dead letter by the time Sthulabhadra died, and a similar inference can be drawn for the Parikamma pertaining to the rest of the 10 Puvvas.
There is another alternative regarding the study of Parikamma. Just as even now-a-days some persons complete the study of the Samskṛta grammar before they enter the field of literature, so Parikamma being a stepping-stone to Puvvagaya some may have been mastering it completely before they began to study even the 1st Puvva.
As regards the study of the Sutta the Jaina literature even the narrative branch of it seems to be completely silent. So I may suggest that the case of the extent of the study of the Sutta is parallel to that of Parikamma, and equally so is its loss.
So far as the Puvvas are concerned it appears that their study must have been preceded by that of the pertinent portions or the entire ones
1 These are rather somewhat revised ones.
2
For a tentative treatment of this topic see Jaina System of Education (pp. 235-287). 3 This assumption is based upon the fact that in all the references about the 5 sections of Ditthivaya I know of, Parikamma is invariably assigned the 1st place and Sutta the second.
See p. 78, fn. 4.
4