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Śramana, Vol. 59, No. 2
April-June 2008
Jaina Literature
Among the religions of the word, Jainism is a very minor religion because it does not cover even one percent of the total worldpopulation; but its literary contribution is not much less than other world's major religions. As per available information total volume of known Jaina works is more than twenty thousand and number of total Jaina manuscripts is more than one million.
The word 'Jaina literature' does not mean only the Jain religious and philosophical literature. It also includes the secular literature written by Jaina Ācāryas and scholars. Thus it covers a very vast area. It includes various branches of knowledge, such as metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, logic, cosmology, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, geography, history, astronomy, astrology, various arts, architecture, grammar, linguistics, medical sciences and so on. In Jaina canonical literature these different subjects are intermingled, though there are some specific Jaina works which deal with only their own subjects.
The primary Jaina literature was composed in Prakrit language, but later on Jaina scholars composed their works in Sanskrit, Apabhraíśa, Kannada, Maru-gurjar, Hindi, Gujrati, Marathi and English also. Its composition started from 5th century B.C. and remains continued till today.
We can divide total Jaina literature into these five categories: 1. Canonical literature along with its commentaries. 2. Works on Jaina metaphysics, karma philosophy,
cosmology, epistemology and logic. 3. Works on Jaina ethics, Jaina code of conduct, yoga and
religious rituals.
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