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"Extending Jain Heritage to the Next Generation"
Jain Scriptures
By: Narendra Sheth
The Jain Scriptures are known as AGAMs, or SOOTRAs, similar to the Christians' Old and New Testaments (known as the Bible), the Muslims' Koran and the Hindus' Vedas. The original Testaments were written in Hebrew language, Koran was written in Arabic, Vedas were written in Sanskrit, and Agams were written in Ardhamagdhi. They all have now been translated into contemporary languages for the benefit of all people.
Who wrote the Agams? How many were there? What are their names? What kind of messages do we find in them? These are some of the topics for discussion here.
First of all, our Tirthankars were Nirgranths. One meaning of the word Nirgranth is "without books". So it is obvious that they did not write books. They had infinite knowledge (Kevalgnan), which is too much to be contained in books. But the Ganadhars (immediate followers), who spent more time with Mahavir than other people, had access to that knowledge. Sudharma Swami, Mahavir's fifth follower, was a very good poet.
Whenever Mahavir disclosed something, Sudharma Swami used to make a small poem out of it, so he could memorize it easily. These poems are called Shloks. Then Sudharma Swami would recite that Shlok to other monks, who would then, in turn, memorize it. Later, Sudharma Swami organized those Shloks by subject, and created the first Agams. There were twelve of them, so they are known as twelve Angs (Ang means a part).
The knowledge in these Angs is very highly concentrated. Other monks realized that it would be very difficult for ordinary monks to understand it, so they added explanations on those Angs, which became known as Upangs (Upang means close to Ang). Then ten more scriptures were created, known as Prayannas. Then came six Chhed Sootras, which contain the stories. The eighth chapter from the fourth Chhed
Sootra is known as Kalpa Sootra, in which we find the life stories of all the Tirthankars and many other important personalities. This Kalpa Sootra is so popular and big that it is read every year during the Paryushan holidays. There are two more Sootras and four more Mool Sootras. There were thirty eight more scriptures, but they are now lost. Also, the twelfth Agam is lost. In short, we had a total of eighty four Agams, out of which only forty five have now survived.
Not all the Agams were created by the same person, or at the same time. The Ganadhars created some, and some more were created by their immediate followers, known as Chaud Poorvies. The Chaud Poorvies did not have the benefitof complete knowledge, but they had the knowledge of fourteen (Chaud means fourteen) Poorans. Then came Das (ten) Poorvies, who also added some more scriptures. Thus the Kalpa Sootra was created by Bhadrabahu Swami, who was a Chaud Poorvie. The last Das Poorvie was Sthoolibhadra Swami. Only the creations of these personalities are known as Agams. Many other monks have continued writing a lot on Jainism, but none of them are called Agams.
Initially the Agams were created in the memories of the creators, and memorized by their followers. They were great Yogis, and they could easily memorize everything they wanted to. So thousands of monks had memorized the scriptures, and spread them all over the country. It went on that way for hundreds of years. But slowly memories started to fade, and some Agams became lost, the distances of travel between monks grew, and so came the necessity to write the Agams down on paper. A large Jain conference was called for this purpose. This happened nine hundred and cighty years after Mahavir's Nirvan.
Later, many affluent people got several copies made for distribution from the original manuscripts, because there were no printing machines then. Today a special Agamoday committee takes care of them, and prints them in various languages for the benefit of com- mon people. Some people have shown
their reverence to these scriptures by having manuscripts written with golden ink! In Palitana (in Gujarat state), there is a temple, "Agam Mandir", where all the walls are filled with the Agam scripts. Today, we find nearly two million handwritten manuscripts, safely stored in various places, known as Gnan Bhandars (knowledge treasures).
Many Germans took a deep interest in Jain literature. Herman Jacobi was a pioneer in the last century. He learned Ardhamagdhi and had many books printed in German. Outside India, Germany has the largest stock of Jain study material.
Britain and America also are developing interest in Jainism. Even though the Agams are supposed to be the only source of Bhagwan Mahavir's discourses, there are many other writers whose writings are also accepted as equally great. Five hundred years after Mahavir's Nirvan, Kundkund Acharya wrote (on paper) some volumes such as "Samaysar" and "Pravachansar". He had developed Yogik powers and left this earth to visit a Tirthankar, Simandhar Swami, living in Mahavideh Kshetra. So Kundkund Acharya's writing is also considered equally authentic. In fact, the followers of Digambar sect say that Agams were written almost a thousand years after Mahavir's Nirvan, and so the Agams can not be perfectly authentic. But another great monk, Umaswati, wrote "Tatvartha Sootra", which is acclaimed by all sects of Jains. Just to mention a few other great writers, I will add that Hemchandra Acharya wrote many books in the twelfth century. Shrimad Rajchandra wrote about a hundred years ago, in Gujarati. Many Gujaratis now read and sing his works in their daily routines.
Irrespective of what sect we belong to, we find no difference in the overall summary of what all these great scriptures tell us. For ordinary household ers like us, all of them have the same message. They all emphasize the same five main principles, which are: Nonviolence, Truth, Non-stealing, Self-Control and Non-Accumulation. All these sacred books are collectively known as
6TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION
JULY 1991
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