Jainism And Its History

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology

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no texts of that category or specification exists, Today, insofar as our knowledge of Parsva's teachings and traditions goes, we are dependent on the canonical literature of Mahāvīra's tradition, and to a very small extent, on the Pāli canon of the Buddhists as well.
In the Ardhamagadhi canon, the Įsibhāsiyam (Rsibhāsitam) the first part of Ācārānga, the Sūtrakrtānga, the Vyakya- prajñapti, the Jnātādharmakathā, the Uttarādhyayana and the Raipaseniyasutra, the Narakavalika, and the Sthānānga reveal some significant references to Pārsva, his teachings as well as his tradition. In the Uttarādhyayana, the Samavāyanga, the Avaśyakanirukti, the Višesāvasyaka-bhāsya of Jinabhadra Gani K samāśramaņa, the Āvaśyaka-curni and in the Paryusana-Kalpa as well as in the Mulācāra of the Yāpaniya Parampara there are references to some distinctive (and hence distinguishing) features of the sects of Pārśva and Mahāvīra.
The material available regarding the life history and the sect of Pārsvanātha is vary scanty and not much traceable in above works; yet it is significant that they contain sufficient material pertaining to the ethical teachings and philosophical doctrines of him. They also firmly point toward the distinctness of Pārsva's tradition from that of Vardhamana.
TEACHINGS OF PĀRŚVA IN ISIBHĀSIYAM
The earliest and authentic version of Pārśva's philosophy and teachings is encountered in the Isibhāsiyam (Rsibhāsitam), a text compiled c. 1st century B.C. but often containing material that goes back to c. 4th century B.C., some even perhaps earlier. In a separate article, I had suggested that the Isibhāsiyam, in terms of some of its content, is earlier than the whole of Pāli as well as the Ardhamagadhi canonical literature excepting of course the first
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