History of Jaina Monachism

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

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S. B. DEO (d) The Tīkās :
The tīkā type of exegetical literature is abundant. It is written in Sanskrit and even upto the present age there are numerous Jaina scholars who produce commentaries on canonical texts.
The names of Haribhadra (8th cent. A.D.), Śīlānka (C. 9th cent. A.D.), śāntisüri (11th cent A.D.), Abhayadeva (11th cent. A.D.), Devendra (11th cent. A.D.), Maladhāri Hemacandra (C. 12th cent. A.D.), and Malayagiri stand foremost as commentators. Among them Abhayadeva and Malayagiri are prominent as the former wrote tīkās on nine texts (3 to 11) of the Angas, while the latter on six Upāngas besides those on Vyavahārabhāşya, Pindaniryukti, Byhatkalpabhāşya and Avaśyaka. Their Importance :
These tīkās are important not only from the point of view of the traditional way of explaining the texts of the Canon, but also from the stories they give to illustrate a particular point. They thus throw light on the social background which, in certain cases, reflects contemporary conditions as also change in monastic practices, if any. Inspite of the fact that many of such stories are of a legendary nature, they reveal a touch of the knowledge of human psychology at their basis.
It is, however, unfortunate that no critical edition of each and every tīkā is up till now available, and we have to depend on ordinary editions. Extent of Svetāmbara Literary Activity :
A survey of the Svetambara Canon together with its exegetical literature shows that the whole literature is the outcome of the literary activity extending over a period from the date of the Pāțaliputra Council upto the seventeenth century A.D.
In this period of well over a couple of thousand years, the Svetārnbaras have produced not only the Canon but also an abundant exegetical literature of equal importance, the probable periods for which we have tried to indicate in the above discussion. The Digambara Canon :
We have already seen that the Digambaras do not acknowledge the Canon as fixed by the Svetāṁbaras.
They, nevertheless, hold in high esteem the tradition about the twelve Angas and the fourteen Pūryās.92
92. Cf. Mül. 9, 65: 'Angāņi dasa ya donni ya coddasa ya dharanti puvväi'.