Jain Agam Sahitya

Author(s): K R Chandra
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 79

THE DREADFUL DETERRENTS TO THE JAIN UPĀ SAKAS IN THE UV A SAGADAS AO
Dr. D. G. Vedia, Ahmedabed.
The Uvāsagadasão is the seventh Anga among the eleven Argas. the sacred books of the Śvetāmbara Jains, the sacred books of Mahāvīra himself and his direct disciples, the Gañadharas. They have passed through three editions at councils held at (1) Pataliputra (about 307 B. C.), (2) Mathurā and Valabhi (about 360 A.D. or 373 A.D.) and (3) Valabhi (about 513 or 526 A.D.). Thus the last edition belongs to the first quarter of the 6th century A.D., In the last edition Devarddhigani compiled a canon of sacred writings partly with the help of old manuscripts and partly on the basis of oral tradition as Winternitz opines. 1
Uvāsagadasão literally means the ten chapters on the religious duties of persons who have become followers of Mahāvīra without, however, renouncing the world and accepting the monastic vows and who remain as ordinary members of tha society. It contains ten stories of pious Jain householders. Most of them are wealthy merchants. They adopt certain vows and rules of conduct laid down by Mahāvīra,
The rules and vows which a Jain monk has to observe ar set forth in the first Anga, the Ācāranga Sutta. The first chapter of the Uvāsagadasāo gives in detail a list of the vows and obser vances. Mahāvira's disciple Ananda, and his wife Sivānandā, adopted the vows and observances in the presence of Mahāvīra. Ānanda acquired the miraculous knowledge of Avadhiñjāna. Finally he dies a voluntary death by starvation like a genuine Jain saint and is reborn as god in heaven. Ānanda is not disturbed by dreadful deterrents during his austerity.
Various kinds of temptations arising from external persecutions, which threaten to prevent pious house-holders from faithful obser