________________
Of Jaina canon Praśnavyākarāṇa, unfortunately, the earlier contents are totally extinct. It seems that the present subject-matter of this work was incorporated in around century 7th A.D. Its extant edition deals with five Asravas, viz., violence, untruthfulness, theft, unchastity and possessiveness along with five Samvaras, viz. nonviolence, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity and nonpossession. Last available work of Anga canon is Vipakadasa, dealing with fruits of merits and demerits.
SECONDARY CANONS (UPANGA)
The first work of the secondary canons is Aupapātika, dealing with the episode of Suryābhadeva. It also depicts a beautiful picture of ancient art and architecture. On the basis of this depiction, scholars date this work not earlier than c. 1st-2nd A.D, The next work of this category is Rajaprasniya which, so far its subject-matter is concerned, is more similar to the Buddhist Pāli canon Paseniyasutta. The third and the fourth, Jivabhigama and Prajñāpanā respectively, deal with the Jaina metaphysics in general and the concepts of Jiva and Ajiva in particular.
The authorship of Prajñāpanā is attributed to Arya Syama (c.1A.D.). Out of these twelve secondary canonical works only Prajñāpanā's authorship is known. About the authorship of other works, we are still in dark. The fifth one is Jambudvipaprajñapti mainly dealing with Jaina Geography in addition to the life history of Rsabha deva. The subject matter of next two works; Suryaprajñapti and Candraprajñapti are related with Jaina cosmology in general and Jaina astronomy in particular. Scholars date this c. 2nd-1stB.C. Other five works of this bunch are very short and rather of less important.
129 Jainism and its History
