Jain Journal 1968 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 60

146
Kailash Chandra has written in his aforesaid work, "And finally 683 years after the death of Mahavira the knowledge of the Angas was totally lost." Malvania discusses the issue at length to establish that this view is not only not upheld by the Svetāmbaras, it was not even shared by the Digambaras in the past. In the initial phase, perhaps, a distinction had cropped up as between sacred texts received direct from the lips of the guru and those preserved through a manual process, the former being considered more sacred. In course of time, however, with the dominance of the latter type of literature, a view-point must have developed about the extinction of the sacred literature. A similar controversy can be traced even amongst the Buddhists.
Introduction apart, the book has 12 chapters and 3 appendices all devoted to the Agama literature. The first chapter is devoted to the delineation of the meaning of the word 'Sruta'-as distingvished from 'Sruti' of the Hindus as it has been used by the Jainas. Like Sruti, Sruta too is a derivative word implying 'it has been heard by me' (suyam me). But in one respect, the two words Sruti and Sruta differ, viz., that whereas the former covers only the Vedas and not the subsequent holy literature, the Jaina Sruta is all comprehensive covering all sacred texts, ancient as well as recent. Hence the word Sruta, initially a derivative word have now become conventional.
JAIN JOURNAL
Now with the ancient peoples in general and the Jainas in particular, the recording of sacred knowledge was not preferred, since recording anything created the possibility of himsā (violence) and parigraha (possession). Such practice has been denounced in the Bṛhatkalpa on the additional ground that it reduces the necessity of svadhyāya. Later the necessity of recording the texts were felt and these were recorded both by the sacelakas and the acelakas.
Now the notion of Sruta which is a category of jñāna placed after mati but prior to avadhi, manahparyāya and kevala-has two facets, one connected with dravya and the other with bhāva, the former including even writing materials and the latter any consideration (vicāra) helping knowledge. The Jainas are very exhaustive in their analysis of the Sruta jñāna-as they are of course with everything else—and they have conceived it as seven pairs of opposites, making a total of 14, of which 6 pairs are as follows:
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(1) akşara śruta and anakṣara śruta, (2) samyak śruta and mithyā śruta, (3) sädik śruta and anādik śruta, (4) saparyabasita or śānta śruta