Religious Problem in India

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

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THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM IN INDIA
faith. There seem to have been older works than these, which have been entirely lost, which are spoken of as the Purvas, but of these, it is said, nothing is kuown. I do not think that that is necessarily true. The Jainas are peculiarly secretive as to their sacred books, and there are masterpieces of literature, among the sect of Digambaras, which are entirely withheld from publication; and I shall not be surprised if in the years to come many of these books, which are supposed to be entirely lost, should be brought out, when the Digambaras have learnt that, save in special cases, it is well to spread abroad truths, that men may have them. Secretiveness may be carried so far as to be a vice, beyond the bounds of discretion, beyond the bounds of wisdom.
Then outside the canonical Seriptures there is an enormous literature of Purāṇas and Ițihāsas, resembling very much the Purānas and Itihāsas of the Hindūs. They are said, I know not whether truly or not, to be more systematised than the Hindū versions; what is clear is that in many of the stories there are variations, and it would be an interesting task to compare these side by side, and to trace ont these variations, and to try and find the reasons that have cansed them.
So much for what we may call their special literature; but when we have run over that, we find that we are still faced by a vast mass of books, which, althongh originating in the Jaina community, have become the common property of all India-gram