Mahavira his Times and his Philosophy of Life

Author(s): Harilal Jain, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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and the royalty and the subjects flocked to him to hear his religious sermons. He propounded to the audience the principles noted above and also the anu-vratas for the laity and mahāvratas for the monks whereby the blissful ideal of life can be reached.
6. Literature Based on Mahāvīra's Teachings Lord Mahāvīra had eleven chief disciples such as Indrabhūti Gautama, Sudharman, Jambu etc.; and they were known as Ganadharas. They have incorporated all his teachings in twelve angas, which are as below: (1) Ācārārga : It presents the rules and regulations on the life of a monk. Its place in Jainism is something like the Vinayapitaka in Buddhism. (2) Sūtra-krtāniga : It sets forth Jaina doctrines as well as resume and discussion of the contemporary creeds like kriyāvāda, akriyā-vāda, niyati-vāda etc. (3) Sthānārga : Here certain topics and their subdivisions are enumerated according to their numbers. For instance, darsana, cāritra, samaya, pradeśa, paramāņu etc. are one each. Kriyā is of two kinds: jīva-kriya and ajīva-kriyā. Further jīva-kriyā is of two kinds: samyaktva-kriya and mithyātva-kriyā. Likewise ajivakriyā is of two kinds: īryā-pathika and sāmparāyika, etc. (4) Samavāyānga: Here certain topics are discussed according to the number of their divisions and subdivisions as in the Sthānānga. But here number is not limited to ten only as in the Sthānāniga, but reaches even hundred and thousand. Thus the nature of both these angas resembles the Anguttara-nikāya of the Tri-pitaka. (5) Vyākhyā-prajñapti : This discusses topics of Jaina philosophy and ethics in the forms of questions and answers. (6) Nāvā-dhamma-kahā : Usually this title is rendered into Sanskrit as jñātr-dharma-kathā and it is taken to indicate that this work contains religious tales narrated by Jñātr-putra Mahāvīra. But it is e
ossible that the Sanskrit form of
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