Jainism

Author(s): N R Guseva
Publisher: Sindu Publications P L

Page 95

LITERATURE AND ART OF THE JAINS
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To the extent to which Jains settled in various regions of India, they used the language of these regions. The Apabhransha languages, which are closer to new Indian analytical languages than the ancient Indian inflected languages occupy a significant place in the much later Jain literature. In the second millennium A.D., Jain literature appeared mainly in new Indian languages, since Jains always strived to popularise their teachings amongst wide mass of people, who did not know Sanskrit. The Jain literature not only developed in Indo-Aryan languages, but in Dravidian (mainly in Kannada) also in as much as thousands of Jains lived there and their biggest monasteries and temples are situated there.
The religious-philosophical terminology of Jain literature is traced back to Indo-Aryan terms. Uptil now no research is made regarding manifestation and reconstruction of the ancient strata of the language of Jain canonic books. That is why it is not possible to say anything about the real connection, existing between the Indo-Aryan group and the other groups and about the manner in which the process of the forcing out of the ancient vocabulary by the Sanskrit and Ardhamagadhi vocabularies took place.
Accepting the then existing tradition, Mahavir left his pupils -Ganadharas, 14 books or sections-Puvvas (purva)—containing the principles of religion. Six generations of Ganadharas remembered them by heart and later, when under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya, a big group of Jain monks headed by Bhadrabahu left for the south (it is considered that the reason for this was a long famine, sweeping the land of Magadha), only one monk named Sthulabhadra, who remembered all the puvvas remained back. Then an all-Jain Synod was called in the city of Pataliputra and a canon was formed for the first time, which is known as 'Siddhanta' or 'Agama'. The first 11 parts or Angas form its base. It is considered that the 14 puvvas which were committed to memory were brought in the 12th Anga, which got the name of Ditthivaya (Drishtivada). But later, the initial Ditthivaya was lost and what was preserved was a record of 14 puvvas of the 4th Anga. There are in all
3. H. Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, Part I, Introduction, p. XLIV, supposedly assumes that the texts of puvvas- were contradictory and became unaccept