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स्व: मोहनलाल बाठिया स्मृति ग्रन्थ
second attempt was made. After the famine, under the leadership of Arya Skandila, the Jaina council of Monks met in Mathurā. The monks present compiled those Agamas that they had been able to retain in their memory. In this congtegation also the scriptures were only recited and not written - this was called the Mathuri rendering. It was the second attempt of systematizing the Āgamas. During this same period another great Jain monk. Nāgārjunasuri also invited many monks in Saurāstra in a council and tried to systematize the Agamic literature.
THE THIRD CONVENTION
150 years after the second attempt, a third attempt was made under the leadership of Devardhigani Ksamásramaņa in Valiabhinagar (modern Saurastra). Besides the Agamas orally compiled in the first two councils, other available works and commentaries too were compiled in this council. The differences in the texts compiled during the two councils were reconciled and systematized. This task was undertaken 980 years after Lord Mahavira's Nirvana. The Agamas available today represent the ones accepted and systematized in the third convention. The special feature of this council was that the sacred scriptures were finally written down. The differences occurring in the texts were mentioned and the twelth Anga Drstivāda was declared unavailable as it was not found in the memory of anyone. Devardhigani is reported to have distributed copies of the scriptures to all the centres of scriptural studies which were flourishing in those days.
Jain Education International 2010_03
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