Jainism in Buddhist Literature

Author(s): Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar
Publisher: Alok Prakashan

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B. C. In other words the Third Council is the lower limit for this purpose, though some very minor changes could have been made up to the final writing during the reign king Vattagamani of Ceylon ( 1st century B. C. ). Law draws the conclusion that the lower limit is the last quarter of the first century B.C.. His conjecture is based on the Milinda pañha ( about the first century A. D.) which refers to the fact that when it was compiled, the division of the canon into three pitakas and five nikāyas was well established.22 He further says: "The Sinhalese commentaries, the Maha-atthakthā, the Mahapaccariya, the Maha-kurndrya, the Andhaka and the rest pre-supposed by the commentaries of Buddhadatta, Buddhaghosa, and Dhammapāla, point to the same fact, namely, that the Canon become finally closed sometime before the beginning of the Christian era. Thus we can safely fix the last quarter of the first century B. C, as the lower limit29.
As a matter of lact, it is doubtful whether the Canon compiled in the Third Council was indeed the same which has conie down to us in the Pāli Tipitaka. For no one can deny that between the third century BC. and the first century B, C. when then the writing down took place; the Tripitaka Inight have undergone many changes, especially much addition. Thus the Pålı Tipitaka as it now exists in not exactly identical with the Pālı Tipitaka compiled in the Third Council; luut the later accretions, interpolations and amendments do not appear to be so numerous and significant as to make the present Canon less valuable as an authentic record of the life and teachings of the Buddha (b) Non-Canonical iterature :
Non-Canonical literature, as we have already stated, can be divided into four categories : (1) Atthakathās, (ii) Tikās, (iii) Tippaņis, and (iv) Pakaranas. Out of these Non-Canonical works only a few like the Atthakathās of Buddhaghosa were found to be useful for my study. Some of the references to Jainism in Commentaries throw much light on the attitude of the later Buddhist monks to Nigantha Nātaputta and some