Jain Journal 1980 10

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

Page 13

OCTOBER, 1980
plus 1 non-existent Anga. Also curious in this connection is the fact that pada... prābhịta-arga-anusāritya came into being because of the Drștivāda, for otherwise it doesn't make sense. And this rddhi was obviously replaced by 14 purvadharatva or vastu-purva-anusăritva in getting entrusted with a task of destroying jñānāvarana and darsanāvarana karmas. It means that pada...prābhịta-anga-anusāritva existed prior to 14 purvadharatva. Then, how did this pada-prābhrta-anga-anusāritva come to be postulated in relation with the Dęstivāda ? All these seem to involve the problem when and how 12 Angas consisting of 11 existent Angas and 1 non-existent Anga came to be authorized. In another word, it involves a problem why the Drstivāda had to be authorized in the class of Anga literature of the Janias.
It is as clear as the Sun that 12 Angas officially called 'duvālasamgam ganipidagam' had existed when 14 pūrvadharatva came into being. Exactly when 12 Anga-ganipițakas were authorized by the Jaina church involves many difficult problems that cannot be handled lightly, however, we can roughly say for sure that their authorization took place in the considerably later time in the canonical period for the following reasons.
Firstly, from the official designation of 12 Anga-ganipitakas, it is evident that the Jaina church adopted the Buddhist practice of classifying the sacred literature into 12 Angas and 3 Pitakas. It is understood, however, that the classification of 9 Angas and 12 Angas of the Buddhists did not mean the division of real texts, but they were rather the names of the literary genres.10 It is generally held that the classification of 9 Angas historically preceeded to that of 12 Angas, which were succeeded by that of 3 Pitakas. And from the existent evidences, the mention of 3 pitakas can be traced back to the 1st century B.C., and the mention of 2 Pițakas (i.e. Vinaya and Sutra) can be traced back to the 2nd century B.C.11 Since 12 Anga-ganipitakas must have been authorized when the Buddhist classification of 3 Pitakas came to be well established, 12 Angas of the Jainas could not have existed before the 1st century B.C.
Secondly, a mention of 12 Angas is made in the texts belonging to the later canonical age (for instance, Sutrakrta II, Sthāna, Samavāya, Bhagavati XVI.6, XX.8, Upāsaka, Aupapātika, Nandi, Anuyoga and Kalpa), inasmuch as 11 Angas and 14 Purvas make their appearance in the texts belonging to the later canonical age (for instance, 11 Angas in
10 E. Maeda : A History of the Formation of Original Texts, English summary,
p. 41. 11 E. Maeda : lbid., Japanese text, pp. 614-616,