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Ethical Literature of the Jainas
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Pindaniryukti and Oghaniryukti to Bhadrabāhu; the third Mülasūtra to Sayyambhava; and the Nandi to Devardhi.1
It is needless to go, here, into such questions of detail, as to whether the number of Agamas is 32 or 45 or 48.2 The extant Agamas include 11 Angas, 12 Upāngas, 10 Prakirņas, 6 Chedas ütras, 1 Nandis ütra, 1 Anuyogadvāra and 4 Mülas ūtra. In this extant literature, apart from the āvasyaka formulae, the most ancient style presents itself in the Acārārga, Sutrakņtārga, the Uttarādhyayana, the old Chedas ūtras, the Rşibhāṣita and in portions of the Daśavaikālika.3 Fortunately for us, these most ancient portions of the Āgamas are those which deal with Jaina ethics primarily. In fact, it is but natural that the Jaina monks, with utmost devotion to conduct, preserved that portion of Agamas with greatest care which dealt with conduct.
With these general remarks about the chronology and position of Āgamas, we proceed to present a brief survey of the individual works of Jaina canonical literature, keeping in view their importance as a source-book of Jaina ethics. (i) Ācārāngas ūtra :
Acārārga is the first and the most important Agama. It contains pithy sentences which directly touch the soul and appear to be the instruction of Lord Mahāvīra himself. It is the earliest authoritative source-book for Jaina ethics. It's first Srutaskandha, containing nine adhyayanas of which only eight are available at present, is earlier than the 2nd śrutaskandha containing three cūlikās.
Silārka in his commentary takes the last but one verse of the first śruta skandha to be the mangala at the end, which shows that he also considered second śrutaskandha to be a later addition. The 2nd śrutaskandha was added to the original Acārānga before Bhadrabāhu wrote his Niryuktion
1. Winternitz, M., A History of Indian Literature, Vol. II, p. 433. 2. Datavaikālika, Calcutta, Vik. Sam. 2020, bhūmikā, pp. 9-12.
Schubring, W., The Doctrines of the Fainas, Delhi, 1962, p. 82.
Max Müller, (ed) SBE, Vol. XXII, Introduction, p. XLVII. 5. Max Müller, (ed.) SBE, Vol. XXII, Introduction, p. XLVII,
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