________________
CHAPTER XXI
NANDI SUTRA AND ANUYOGADVĀRA
The Nandi Sutra 1 and the Anuyogadvāra 2 are occasionally counted among the Prakirnakas, but they really stand as two companion texts forming a group by themselves. The first sutra as its title implies contains an 'auspicious introduction' to the study of the Svetambara canonical texts, and as such its main bearing is on the Jain method of education. Like the Anuyogadvara it is compiled partly in prose and partly in verse. One of the first forty-seven verses contains an eulogy of the tirthankara, two that of Mahāvīra, fourteen that of the Jain Sangha, two introduce the twenty-four tirthankaras, two mention the eleven ganadharas or leading disciples of Mahāvīra, one extols the order of Mahāvīra, and eleven supply us with a succession of 27 Jaina teachers from Sudharman to Duṣyagani, the teacher of Devavacaka who is identified with Devarddhigani under whose guidance the final redaction of the Svetambara agama was made in the Council of Valabhi. If Devavacakagani, who is regarded as the author of the Nandi Sutra, be the same person as Devarddhigani, the work cannot be dated earlier than the 6th century A.D.
The succession of twenty-seven teachers traced from Sudharman the ganadhara, who survived the Master, is by itself an evidence to prove the lateness of the date of compilation of the Nandi Sutra. Apart from giving the main themes of the different canonical texts, the Nandi Sutra resembles the Anuyogadvāra in mentioning such secular Indian literature as represented by the two Sanskrit epics, and such treatises as the Kautiliya Arthasastra, the Kamasutra of Ghoṭakamukha, the Vaisesika system of philosophy, the doctrine of Buddha, the Samkhya system of Kapila, the Lokayata doctrine, the Yoga system of Patanjali, the Bhāgavata Purana, the works on mathematics and dramaturgy, grammar, and poetics, besides the four Vedas and their later appendices, the Angus and Upangus. Malayagiri wrote a commentary on the Nandi Sutra which is helpful in understanding the meaning of the text.
1 Edited with Malayagiri's commentary in the Agamodaya Samiti Series, Bombay, 1924.
2 Edited with Hemacandra Suri's commentary in the Agamodaya Samiti
Serios, 1924.
