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XVI : SĀRĀVALI PRAKĪRNAKA
reasonably in the absence of sufficient evidence), it can be surinised that Sārāvalī Prakīrnaka was not in existence upto the 14th century AD. This work was, therefore, composed sometime after the 14th century AD.
Generally, the term Prakirnaka means “a miscellaneous treatise'. According to Malayagiri, the commentator on the Nandīsūtra, the monks used to compose the Prakirnakas based on the preachings of the Tīrtharkaras (the Prophets Propounders of the faith). “Caurāsīm painnaga sahassāim, in the Samavāyāngasūtra, points towards eighty-four thousand Prakirnakas by the eighty-four thousand disciples of Lord Rsabhadeva.' However, today the number of prakīrnakas is not definitely known and presently only ten Prakīrnakas are recognized among the forty-five canonical texts recognized by the idol worshipping sect of white-clad Jainas. These ten prakīrnakas are as follows:
Catuhśaraņa, Aturapratyakhyāna, Mahápratyākhyāna, Bhaktaparijñā, Tandulavaicārika,
Samavāyānga Sūtra, Ed. Muni Madhukara, Sri Agama Prakāśana Samiti, Beawar, I Ed., 1982, 84"" Samavāya, p. 143. (a) Prakrta Bhāśā Aur Sāhitya kā Ālocanätmaka Itihasa, Dr.
Nemicandra Šāstrī, p. 197. (b) Jain Agama Sāhitya Manana Aur Mīmānsā, Devendra Muni Sa
strī, p. 388. (c) Āgama Aur Tripitaka : Eka Anuśīlana, MuniNagarāja, p.
486.
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