Samavayangasuttam

Author(s): Ashok Kumar Singh
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 18

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śruta: heard from the attained or his disciples.
upadeśa: instructions to learn about good or bad.
āgama: traditional doctrines or sacred canons containing them.
sūtra: abbreviated indicators, aphorisms or sacred collections.
grantha: treatises of sermons, collections, connecting or stringing together of sermons.
siddhanta: tenets or established truths.
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śāsana: authentic controlling instructions on disciplines.
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ājñā: commandments.
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vācanā: sermons in the form of spoken words. 10. prajñāpanā: communication of sermons. jinavacana: precepts of the Jinas.
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12. pravacana: special sermons.
13. aptavacana: instructions of the attained.
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aitihya: traditional preachings.
15. āmnāya: sacred traditions.
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śāstra: teaching, awakening and discipline about constraints and preservation of culture".
The great Jaina scholars Revered Muni Punyavijaya and Pt. Dalsukh Malvania also deliberated, in detail, on the meaning and synonyms of the word 'agama' as occurred in canonical literature. To quote their words, "From the use of the word 'agama' in the scriptures at various places we gather that the intention there is to convey the meaning jñāna (knowledge) by the term 'agama'. 'Agamettā aṇavejjā" is translated into Sanskrit as jñātvā ājñāpayet' i.e. 'may order after having known'.
Ach. Bhadrabahu says that 'pravacana', 'sūtra' and 'artha' are synonyms9. But how 'sūtra' and 'artha' can be synonymous with 'pravacana' because 'pravacana' constitutes the genus while sutra and artha constitute its