Jain Journal 1974 04

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

Page 27

APRIL, 1974
165
What can be ascertained about the date of composition of the sacred books ? There is no proof at all events that the first Tirthakara was the revealer of their contents, though this is a dogmatic theory of the Jaina. But we have three methods by which to determine the latest date to which they may be assigned : the tests of scientific knowledge, of language, and of metres used. For instance, no traces of the elements of Greek astronomy can be found in the Siddhānta, and we know that these were introduced into India in the fourth century of our era. Evidently the Jaina Scriptures must have all been composed before then. The language too would give a perfect clue, if it were not that books may have been handed down, not in the language of composition, nor in that of pronunciation. Jacobi thinks that the language has been modernized, for the same word is not always spelt the same way in Jaina texts and MSS. It would be quite impossible, therefore, to restore Devarddhi's recension. But there are other differences between the original and present Siddhānta text. Weber speaks of 'lost passages which were extant at the date of the older commentaries, but also large interpolations which are apparent, and furthermore the text has even suffered complete transformations.22 He attributes these changes, and the loss of the entire ‘Dīstivāda', to the influence of the orthodox sect of Svetambara, to whom the present Siddhānta exclusively belongs.
Probably we must regard these methods of spelling as historical ; that is, all spellings were treated as authentic, and so were preserved. If this assumption is correct, the most archaic spelling represents pronunciation near the time of composition, while modern spelling dates back to the period shortly before the redaction of the Canon took place. Using this proposition, and comparing the Jaina Prakrit in its oldest form with Pali texts on the one side, and later Prakrits on the other, we are led to the conclusion that the sacred books of the Jaina approximate more in point of time to the Southern Buddhists than to later Prakrit writers.
An examination of the metres in use is a still safer guide. What do we find ? It will be sufficient for the sake of example to take the Vaitālīya, Trişțubha, and Āryā metres and discuss their use. We note then that the Jaina Sūtrakstānga-Sūtra has a whole lesson in the Vaitālīya metre; that Pali verses of the Southern Buddhists and Sanskrit literature of the Northern Buddhists also use the metre; and further, that the Dhammapadam (of the Southern Buddhists) is written in an older style, whereas the Lalita Vistara (of the Northern Buddhists) is more modern in point of development. We conclude, therefore, that this one in the "? Weber's Sacred Literature of the Jains, traslated by Dr. A, W. Smyth (1893), p. 8.