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knowledge contained in 'Purvas'. In fact the 'Purvas' were the soft copies of Jain philosophy which remained stored in the supreme computer - human brain. The hard copies in the form of Agams were composed almost after a thousand years. Before writing down the vast ocean of Jain knowledge, a large group of Jain Acharyas held several meetings and concluded to distribute various subjects to different groups. This scheme resulted in faster implementation, as the work on different subjects was carried out simultaneously. Since the basic material available with all the groups was same, the 'Purvas', therefore some repeatability was inevitable. Mahapragya considers Acharang Sutra to be the first work from the point of view of this plan of action. However, he renders the actual chronology as redundant because the entire picture emerges only when all the constituents of the jigsaw puzzle were placed together. With this exposition, confusions and controversies were put to rest which had originated on account of different subjects being taken up in different scriptures. According to this scheme, a particular subject was taken up in detail in one scripture, whereas, treated symbolically in another scripture. Commenting in this context, Mahapragya has enumerated various subjects being dealt with in the Dwaadshangi (Twelve Angas) of Samvayang and Nandi scriptures:
1. In Acharang, as the name suggests, life-style, precepts-mannerisms, educationlanguage, etc. of a saint are described in detail. Other subjects find just a mention.
2. Subjects of Lok-alok (universe-void), animate-inanimate, philosophical topics of Jains and other doctrines are dealt with in varying degrees of depths in different Agams:
i. In Sutrakritang, information is in the form of small couplets covering the salient features.
ii. In Vyakhyapragyapti, these subjects are explained in detail. The frequently asked questions are answered descriptively.
iii. In Sthanang, the subjects are critically examined and all theories contain their respective justifications.
iv. In Samvayang, there are either definitions or brief discussion on the above mentioned subjects.
Thus we find that fundamentals have been discussed in all the scriptures, though at some places there is only an incidental reference, at another place there is a brief discussion and at yet another place, a detailed treatment is given. Therefore, the knowledge of a subject becomes complete only when they are all taken together. So, to point out inconsistencies between one scripture and another is not a desirable exercise. It is clear that to evaluate scriptures from a historical periodic perspective would not be meaningful since they have been composed in a schematized manner.
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