________________
gyta frost
Agamas and the Pāli Pitsakas are the two sources available today which present lively picture of the people of India 2500 years ago. It is noteworthy that the message of Jainism and Buddhism was not limited to those two sects only but it spread to all parts of the country in the language of the masses. It is to be noted that Māgdhi Prākrit was later known as Pali.
DIGAMBARA VIEWS ON AGAMAS
The above mentioned Agamas are not accepted by the Digambara sect of Jains. They believe that 683 years after the nirvāņa of lord Mahavira, the entire Agamic literature was lost. However, the loss was not really 'total'. The Digambara first adopted this expression in order to reject the authenticity of scriptures retained by Svetämbaras.
ŞAȚKHANDĀGAMA
The most authentic scripture accepted by the Digambaras is Şafkhandāgama, which is considered to be an equivalent of the Dvadasanga (the twelve Angas). The Digambaras have immense faith in it consider it to be very sacred. Satkhandagama enjoys an esteemed place not only in Jaina literature but in the entire religious and spiritual literature of India for the exhaustive and detailed description of karma of karma and other important theories.
There is no mention of the title Șatkhandagama in the original texts. But the famous commentator Acārya Virasena has discussed the text in six parts, hence it came to be known as Şafkhandāgama.
The Digambaras believe that when most of the Āgamic literature was lost and very little of it was available,
Jain Education International 2010_03
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
