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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
orders, is quite considerable. Several research institutes, literary societies, publication series and socio-religious organisations, as also some three dozen periodicals and magazines, published in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu and English are contributing to the literary activities of the Jainas at the present time.
Subjectwise, the entire religious literature of the Jainas may be divided. into three categories: canonical, quasi-canonical and non-canonical. The first comprises the canonical texts and the various commentaries, glosses, etc. written on them. The second class consists of the works of early authors, such as Samaya-sāra, Pravacana-sāra, Pañcāstikāya-sāra, and other pāhudas (lit. treatises) of Kundakund-ācārya, and the Tattvārthadhigama-sūtra of Umā-svāti, both belonging to the first century A.D., which were directly based on or epitomised portions of the traditional canon when it had not yet been redacted. The many commentaries on such works are also included in this class. The first of the two masters mentioned above is avowedly Digambara, yet his works, especially the Samaya-sāra, which is the chief source of the spiritual mysticism as obtains in Jainism, are equally popular with and held in high esteem by the followers of thegvetāmbara sect, even by many non-Jainas. Umāsvāti is claimed alike by both the sects, and his Tattvārth-ādhigamasūtra, also known as Tattvārtha-sūtra or Mokşa-śāstra, written in pithy Sanskrit aphorisms, contains, as it were in a nutshell, a full, accurate and lucid exposition of the creed of the Jina. It occupies in Jainism the same place as the Visuddhi-magga with the Buddhists and the Bible with the Christians, and has been the object of learned labours of numerous commentators: in fact, perhaps no other Jaina work has so many commentaries written on it. The third class of religious works is non-cononical and includes miscellaneous independent compositions on various religious topics.
