Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 47

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JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XXXVIII, NO. 3 JAN. 2004
arguments will be based? We will primarily depend upon the canonical literature of the Jains. The Jains were divided into two groups --- the Svetambara and the Digambara. In course of time, we found that the two groups had different sets of literature as well. The Svetambara canonical literature is popularly known as Agama grantha or Siddhānta. Agama refers to 'that which has come down' to us from Lord Mahāvīra. It is called Siddhanta because that is the essence (conclusion) of the speeches of Lord Mahāvīra. But in 1939 the canonical literature of the Digambaras was discovered in Moodbidri and the first publication (edited by Hiralal Jain) started from Amaravati. In course of time, the Digambara canonical literature, such as, the Satkhaṇḍāgama, Kasayapahuḍa, and Mahābandha were all published.
Among the Digambara scholars, some are worth mentioning. It was probably in the early centuries of the Christian era that we have some Digambara writers who contributed a lot to the cause of Jainism. The first among them was Kundakunda (1st or 3rd century A.D.) who wrote many books, Pravacanasāra, Niyamasāra, Samayasara, Pañcāstikāyasāra, Prabhṛta-traya or Sāra-traya and so on. These books of Kundakunda were, of course, the earliest, while the other literature followed him. This was the first secular Digambara literature as far as we know. Today, of course, many Digambara literature like 'Kaṭṭigeyāṇuvekkhā 'and Vaṭṭakera's Mūlācāra, Sivārya's Bhagavati-aradhanā, Yativṛṣabhācārya's Tiloyapannatti were published from many places and Jainism spread throughout the length and breadth of South India. Starting from Karanataka, it spread to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Mysore and Kerala as well. The Jain influence had not been very appreciable in Kerala till then.
It is to be noted in this connection that enormous literature in different languages had been developed in the south. Starting from the literature in the Prakrit language, we have the Jain literature in Kannada, Telugu and in Tamil. Tamil and Kannada have a lot of literature on Jainism. Most of the Kannada literature till very recently was founded on Jainism and also on Jain philosophy. Till about the 10th century A.D. there was no separate Mālāyālam Jain literature, but