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Jaina Canonical Literature
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197
Cūrņis viz., Daśavaikālika of Agastyasimha and Cūrņisūtras on Kasāyapāhudasutta are the earlier among the Cūrņi literature.
Among whole of the commentary literature Cūrņis hold an important place because first, they deal with the various subjects and are directly concerned with social and cultural heritage of Jainism. Secondly, they supply so many informations about the Jaina History pertaining c. 1^-6h A.D.
Cürņis were succeeded by Sanskrit commentaries written on different Āgamic texts, known as Vrttis or Vivaraņas. Among Sanskrit commentators Haribhadra Sūri is the earliest, flourished in the middle of the c. 8th A.D. He wrote commentaries on Āvaśyaka, Daśavaikālika, Jivābhigama, Prajñāpanā, Nandi, Anuyogadvāra and Pindaniryukti. Šīlānkācārya, flourished in the c. 91h A.D. believed to have written several commentaries on Agamas but unfortunately at present only two commentaries on Ācārānga and Sūtrakstānga, are available. 'After śīlānka, Abhayadevasüri and śāntisūri are the prominent names among commentators. Abhayadevasūri has commented upon nine of eleven Argas except Ācārānga and Sūtrakrtārga, hence was called Navāngivsttikāra. Sāntisūri has written a commentary on Uttarädhyayana-sūtra. Both of these later Sanskrit commentators flourished, during c. 10h-11h A.D. This trend of commentary writing is still current in Svetāmbara tradition.
In Digambara tradition, Kasāyapāhuda and Satkhandāgama are considered as equivalent to āgamas. These works are written in c. 4th-5th A.D. On Kasāyapāhuda, first commentary was written by Yativrsabha in the form of Cūrņi-sūtras in c. 6th A.D. After that in c. 9th A.D. Vīrasena wrote two commentaries-- Jayadhavalā and Dhavalā on Kasāyapāhuda and Șatkhandāgama respectively. Mahadhavalā is a commentary on the one part of Șatkhaņdāgama, written by his disciple Jinasena. These commentaries mainly deal with Jaina philosophy in general and Karma theory in particular.
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