Jainism in North India

Author(s): Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

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JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA by Nahāvīra himself, and that the Angas were then composed by his Ganadharas.
From this it becomes clear that Mahavira and his Ganadharas who succeeded him were the authors of the Jaina Agamic literature. When we say that Mahāvīra was the author we do not mean that he actually wrote them, but that whatever is recorded there was taught by him. “For authorship in India depended chiefly on the matter, the words being rather irrelevant, provided the sense be the same "2 Furthermore, from certain peculiarities of the Jaina literature itself we can also mark that along with the rehgion it can be traced as far back as Vardhamana and some time even before him. But we shall not touch any of these characteristic features here, since we are going to deal with them in our chapter on " Jaina Literature"
Now when in such canonical literature of the Jainas we find more or less unanimous and reliable reference to Pārsva there is no reason to doubt their authentiaty Take for instance the Kalpa-Sutra of the days of Bhadrabāhu. It has referred to all the Tirthankaras of the Jainas. Its references to Pārsva and MahāvīraDharma bave, however, been dealt with. The most important passage is the one in the Bhagavatī wherein is described a dispute between Kālāsavesiyaputta, a follower of Påráva, and some disciple of Mahāyira. It ends with the former's begging permission to stay with him “after having changed the law of the four vows for the law of the five vows enjoining compulsory confession." 3 In Silünka's commentary on the Acaranga the same distinction is made between the Cāturyāma of Pārsva's followers and the Pancayāma of Vardhamāna's Tirtha
The same thing is repeated also in the Uttaradhyayana. To quote Dasgupta. "The story in the Uttaradhyayana that a disciple of Parsva mct a disciple of Mahavira and brought about the union of the old Jainism and that propounded by Mahåvira seems to suggest that this Pārsva was probably an historical person " 5 1 Jacobi, S.BE , ,Int , p 45
Jacobi, Kalpa-Sutra, p. 15 एमे कालासयेसिपपुले सणगारे परे भगवंतो यदइ नमसर २ (सा) एव वदासी-इच्छामि भने । TH - Bhagos ari-Sūtra, Satala I, süt 76 Cf also Weber, Pragment der Bhagavati, p 185
HPT NgamT V , etc --Cf Acârânga-Sutra, Srutashandha II, vv 12-18, p 320
Dasgupta, llistory of Indian Philosophy, 1, p 100 Cf also t ringan mart
h at y Uttarūdhyayana-Sülra, Adhyayana XXIII, V. 25
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