Jain Legend Vol 2

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

Page 170

When the famine was over, and the conditions returned to normalcy, all monks who migrated to different places, returned to P al putra. Prolonged living without enough food and water due to the terrible long famine and facing many death-like difficulties, the monks were unable to practice recitation of gamas regularly. As a result, much of the canonical texts were forgotten. The need for the recitation and rememorisation / writing of sacred texts was felt. For this purpose, the aged and the scholarly monks, the Sthaviras who were well-versed in Ek da mg, were to congregate at a common place and recite all the canonical literature and protect the Dw da mg from falling into oblivion.
After taking such a decision, the first recitation of gamika scriptures took place at P al putra in 160 V.N. All the monks present there participated in it. Pontiff Bhadrab hu was in Nepal at that time, practicing Mah pr a meditation. Hence the recitation was carried out under the auspices of Sth labhadra, the disciple of the late c rya Sambh tavijaya.
The recitation of each of the twelve canons of Dw damg was carried out in series, one by one in a proper manner; and with the extreme and mutual cooperation of the rama as, the forgotten texts were recollected in their original form. All the monks memorised the forgotten texts by listening to the same being recited over and over again by the monks who had retained and recollected them. Thus, the farsightedness, mutual cooperation and collective exchange of the recalled texts, saved Ek da mg from going into oblivion.
A Major Problem
After the completion of the recitation of Ek da mg, the monks were confronted with a difficult problem regarding the profession of the canonical knowledge. None of the monks attending the congregation had the knowledge of D iv da. The congregation was worried that without D iv da, how can the essence of the preachings of Lord Mah v ra be adopted. Some of the monks came out with a suggestion that only
c rya Bhadrab hu was proficient in the fourteen P rvas, and that he was engaged in Mah pr a meditation in Nepal. He alone could recite
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