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tradition of Jainism. It is very informative Jaina text of early medieval period.
THE SECULAR LITERATURE OF JAINAS
As defined, being a realistic system with a high spiritualistic bias, the basic texts of Jainism deal with the phenomena of the spiritual kingdom as well as physical universe. Jaina Ācāryas introduced various learnings aiming at the developement of personalities and character, preservation of its cultural heritage; shoulder the responsibilities of the ascetic and house-holders in society and performance of religious duties. These aims are achieved by learning such subjects as could strike the balance between the spiritual as well as worldly life.
The earlier Jaina canons mention different subjects dealing with worldly phenomena. Sūtrakṛtānga, Bhagavati, Samavāyanga, Nandisūtra, Prajñāpanā, Jambudvipa prajñapti, Candra and Suryaprajñapti describe various aspects of biology, grammar, chanda, nirukta, jyotisa, geography, astronomy etc., but in Āgamas these different subjects are intermingled. Realizing necessities of some independent works regarding worldly phenomena, Jaina Ācāryas composed some secular literature dealing with the physical phenomena.
As the result, by the beginning of c. 3rd A. D. several independent works were composed on various subjects such as - Astronomy, Astrology, Geography, Mathematics, Biology, Arts and Architecture, Linguistic and Medicinal discipline, i.e. Ayurveda, etc. It would be in the fitness of the things to record some of the details about such works, viz. Lokavibhaga of Sarvanandi (c. 6th A. D.) and Tiloya-prajñapti of Yatirsabha composed in Prakrta, are two important works on Astronomy and Geography. Some more
147 Jainism and its History
