Jaina Religion Historical Journey of Evolution

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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64 Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution
Maharashtra. The inscriptions of Mrgeśa Vermā of 5th century AD in north Karnataka inform us of the existence of five samghas of Jainas- (1) Nirgranthasamgha (2) Müla-samgha (3) Yāpanīya samgha (4) Kūcarka-samgha and white clothed Mahāśramaņasaingha. In the same period a copper plate discovered in northeast India reveal the existence of Pañca-stūpānavaya. The white clothed Mahāśramana-samgha of this period was divided in many families and branches, whose complete description is available in Kalpasūtra and the documents of Mathura.
In the long time span of about 1000 years i.e. between the nirvāņa of Mahāvīra and Sin century AD, Ardhamāgadhi Agama texts were continuously written and compiled. Today, the Agamas, which are available to us, are neither written by one single person nor at a particular time. Not only this, infact, one single scripture contains a collection of the material from different periods. The first and the foremost in this period was the assembly (vācanã) of Pāțalīputra in 3rd century BC.
The Agamas called Arigas and the Pūrva literature of Pārsva's descendents were probably compiled in this assembly. The issue of compilation of Pūrva literature became significant as the tradition of Pārsva's descendents was