Book Title: Jain Journal 1974 04
Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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Page 29
________________ APRIL, 1974 said to be fourteen of these, but in time the knowledge of them was lost, and they became totally extinct. The Svetambara hold that these fourteen Purva were incorporated in the twelfth Anga, the Dṛṣṭivāda, which was lost before the thousandth year of their era, i.e., before the redaction under Devarddhi. Anyhow a detailed account, or table of contents, is found in the fourth Anga, the Samavāyānga, and in the Nandi Sutra. There are two reasons for believing that this tradition is correct. First, the word 'purva' means 'former', and second, the Anga do not derive their authority from the Purva, and there would be no need to fabricate the idea. How then was it that the Purva were superseded by a new Canon ? Weber thinks that the Svetambara lost the Dṛṣṭivada, because they had begun so to differ from the tenets of the book that the Purva fell into neglect.23 Jacobi holds that the Purva were probably only of temporary value, and contained accounts of philosophical controversies held between Mahavira and his rivals. The title 'pravada' which is added to the name of every Purva seems to favour this view. Whereas if the Svetambara be accused of losing the Purva, the Digambara seem to have lost their Anga as well within the first two centuries after the Nirvāṇa. In this case the neglect of the Purva was due, not so much to any direct intention, as to the fact that the new Canon set forth the Jaina doctrines in a clearer light. Contents of the Siddhanta. What then was the Canon of the Jaina Scriptures which Devarddhi Ganin compiled? The Siddhanta, as we now have it is divided into forty-five Agama, in six groups; several of the texts of the Agama having distinct names as authors. There are : I. Eleven Anga. II. Twelve Upanga. III. Ten Painna. IV. Six Cheda. 167 V. Jain Education International VI. Two Sutra (Nandi and Anuyogadvāra). Four Müla-Sutra. Weber has shown that 'the oldest portions of their literature are in reality nothing but disjecta membra; that they are very unequal, and, as regards the date of their composition, separated from each other by extensive periods'. Yet he admits that 'a hand, aiming at unification 28 Indische Studien, xvi. p. 248. For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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