History of Jaina Monachism

Author(s): S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute

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S. B. DEO history of Jaina monachism, as both of these types of sources may be said to have certain merits as well as demerits.
The data and the nature of a literary source is not easy to fix. It may have derived its material from tradition, or partly from tradition and partly from a historical event. The epigraphical data is generally historical, often contemporary with the event, though usually brief. Inscriptions may be said to serve as a kind of a check on the literary sources, and they sometimes supplement and vindicate the information in the texts, as in the case of the Kalpasūtra and the Mathură Inscriptions.30 Thus the information as given in the Jaina canonical texts checked by historical evidence may be said to form the basis of the historical approach to Jaina monachism. The importance of svet. and Dig. works:
Considering the fact that little work, particularly on Jaina monachism has been done up till now, a study of the Svetāmbara canon together with its exegetical literature as also that of the early and later Digambara texts presents an interesting field for research. Irrespective of the fact that the Jaina canonical books "are written in a dry-as-dust, matter of fact, didactic tone, and .... are seldom instinct with general human interest which so many Buddhist texts possess,"31 they are of immense value for our purpose. The texts of the canon of a monachism well-known for its ethical and ascetic practices are bound to be so. Limitations of the Svet. Canon:
Before entering into a detailed study of the Svetāmbara Canon, it should be made clear that the group of texts known as the 'Siddhanta' or 'Agama' is acknowledged only by the Svetāmbara sect of the Jaina Church and it is disowned and taken as unauthoritative by the Digambaras.
Moreover, among the different groups of texts that go to form the Śvetāmbara canon, no unanimity about the total number of the books of the Agama can be had. Different scholars come to different conclusions.32 The following list, however, based on the opinion of scholars like WINTERNITZ33 and WEBER, 34 is generally accepted.
30. BÜHLER, Indian Sect of the Jainas, pp. 58-60.
31. WINTERNITZ, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 426; also WEBER: '(Jaina) literature, remarkable not less for its immensity than for its monotony and intellectual poverty"-L.A. Vol. XVII, p. 290.
32. Prof. KAPADIA gives a list of 84 books of the Canon : Canonical Lit. of the Jainas, p. 58; See GLASENAPP, op. cit., tran. p. 100. ; also Thān. p. 49b; Anugoya, pp. 3-5; 201-02; Nandi. 114.
33. op. cit., pp. 428-30. 34. 1.A. Vols. XVII-XXI.