Jainism

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophical Publishing House

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10
JAINISM
Scriptures. Three or four hundred years before the reputed birth of Christ, they were put into writing, reduced, the Western world would say, to a fixed form. But we know well enough it was not more fixed than in the faithful memories of the pupils who took them from the Teacher; and even now as Max Muller tells us, if every Veda were lost they could be textually reproduced by those who learn to repeat them. So the Scriptures, the Siddhanta, remained written, collected by Bhadrabaka, at this period before Christ. In A.D. 54 a council was held, the Council of Valabhi, where a recension of these Scriptures was made, under Devarddigamin, the Buddhaghosha of the Jainas. There are fifty-five books, as I said; 11 Angas, 22 Upāngas, 10 Pakinnakas, 6 Chedas, 4 Mūla-sūtras, and 2 other Sūtras. This makes the canon of the Jaina religion, the authoritative Scripture of the faith. There seem to have been older works than these, which have been entirely lost, which are spoken of as the Purvas, but of these, it is said, nothing is known. I do not think that is necessarily true. The Jainas are peculiarly secretive as to their sacred books, and there