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BOOK REVIEW
JAIN SAHITY KA BRHAD ITIHAS (A Comprehensive History of Jaina Literature in Hindi) Vol. II. Argabāhya Agam : Jagadish Chandra Jain and Mohanlal Mehta : P. V. Research Institute, Varanasi : Pages 18 +442 : Price Rs. 15.00.
A detailed review-cum-summary of the first volume of this comprehensive history of Jaina literature was published in these columns. The book under review is the second volume in the series dealing with the Anga-bāhya Agamas, which include not only the Upārgas, but also the Mula Sutras, the Cheda Sūtras, the Culikā Sūtras and the Prakirnakas. While Āgamas proper have been produced by the Ganadharas of the last Tirthankara, Mahavira, the Anga-bāhya Āgamas have been the handiwork of later masters, all with a high degree of spiritual eminence. These works are, therefore, no less significant. Still perhaps a line of demarcation is called for which is provided by the Anga Āgamas as distinct from Arga-bāhya Agamas, both being Agamas but the former slightly prior, and the latter, the Anga-bhāya Āgamas, literally Agamas that are external to the Angas, slightly posterior in point of time. But the two, the Anga-Agamas and the Arga-bāhya Āgamas together constitute the entire compendium of classical spiritual knowledge and in that sense this second volume is complementary to the first. The authorship of this volume is shared between Jagadish Chandra Jain and Mohanlal Mehta, the latter also being one of the coeditors of this series.
Needless to add, all Agamas, Anga-prabista as well as Arga-bāhya, are the Svetāmbara sources. The Digambaras hold them to be extinct in the womb of time and hence non-extant. To the Svetāmbaras the only Arga that is non-extant is the twelfth one entitled Drștivāda, the rest having escaped the ravages of time and hence still available. From the Svetāmbara stand point, the Anga-bāhya Āgamas fall into five categories as Upānga, Müla Sūtra, Cheda Sutra, Culikā Sūtra and Prakirnaka, each having further sub-divisions to be taken note of in the course of the review. As to their authorship and date of writing only a few are known, the rest being not on record. Among the writers of the Upārgas, the only one known is Syāmārya or Kālakācārya who was the recipient of the title 'Yuga-pradhāna' and who produced his work Prajñāpanā sometime between 135-94 pre-Vikrama era. Other Upāngas too must
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