History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

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

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THE CANONICAL LITERATURE OF THE JAINAS
child on a dung-hill (8 47) or placing it under a cart (895) and then bringing it back with the belief that it may thereby live long (8 47), human sacrifices (8 107) for winning the favour of deities, festivals in honour of Indra and others (8 11), extremely barbarous and cruel ways of inflicting punishments for theft and adultery (8 37, 63) and the various instruments etc. used by jailors for inflicting corporal punishments upon prisoners ($ 120-121), proficientcy of harlots (8 34), and various preparations of flesh etc. (8 66, 93, 135, 151) are some of the aspects of the society which are reflected in the narratives given in this Anga.
OVAVĀÏYA
This work is considered as the 1st Uvanga. Herein are described in full, the city of Campā, the sanctuary of Punnabhadda and the garden surrounding it, the Asoga tree therein, King Kūniya alias Bhimbhasāraputta, his queen Dharini and Lord Mahāvīra”, to name a few out of many. These descriptions are reproduced, indicated by the word vanna or abbreviated by introducing the word jāva, when they are required elsewhere; for, this Uvanga is practically the 1st work codified at the council of Valabhī. Over and above this work being a store-house of splendid descriptions, it has a historical importance, too, as it refers to Lord Mahāvīra's samosarana in Campā and the pilgrimage of Kūniya to that place. Further, the various attainments and penances of the saints of Lord Mahāvīra are here mentioned in details, and this is followed by the description of various celestial beings who come to attend upon Lord Mahāvīra. His sermon delivered on this occasion may be looked upon as the last item of the 1st parts which may be named as Samosarana. The 2nd part opens with the description of Indrabhūti's journey to Lord i Siddhasena Gani, too, believes so, in case such an inference can be drawn from the following line occurring in his com. (p. 27) on Tattvārtha (VI, 14):
"344 taufach vydat stufjaciA" 2 In Über ein Fragment der Bhagavati a similar description of Lord Buddha is given
by Dr. A. Weber. 3 In s. 30 these are treated at length. 4 Sutta 38 furnishes us with a description of celestial damsels. 5 The author has not divided the work into 2 parts; but this is what some of
the modern scholars do.