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ŚRUTA-SARITĀ
collected the thoughts and ideas arose in the tradition from time to time. If we look at Prajñāpanā from this view-point it is nothing but a systematic collection of ideas and thoughts accumulated in tradition upto that period. This is the reason why the readers were asked to refer to Prajñāpanā for complete discussion when the Agamas were put down in writing.
Living being and Karma (moral causation)--these are the two main subjects dealt with in the Jaina Āgamas. One trend of thinking keeps living being in the centre while discussing various topics viz. as to how many divisions of living beings there are, as to how long a living being of a particular type can live, as to where it dwells, in which class it can take birth after death, as to how many sense-organs it can possess, as to which sex it can have, as to how many knowledges it can possess, as to which karmas it can bind, etc. Another trend of thinking keeps Karma in the centre and discusses in the amid different types of Karma and their role in the spiritual evolution of degradation of a living being. Hence this trend, keeping in view the spiritual evolution or a living being, determines the 14 points of investigation (marganāsthāna) for the examination of and search for the 14 stages of spiritual evolution of a living being (gunasthāna) which are known as Jivasamāsa. These 14 points of investigation are the different divisions of living beings due to their gati etc.
Prajñāpanā represents the first trend while old works on Karma like Karmaprakrti, Satkhandāgama, etc. represent the second trend. The state of affairs being what it is, it becomes very difficult for us to determine the chronological order to these works. In the 15th Cent. and even after when the Sthānakavāsī tradition tried to present in the form of thokada works, written in Gujarātī the ideas and thoughts of Āgamas, it presented the marganāsthānas etc. in such a way as could be easily grasped by an ordinary reader. And in the Anga work named Sthānănga too a particular item is presented keeping in view the number of its constituents. But let us remember that even in the days of Sthānānga the ideas relating to living beings and Karma were presented in a complicated manner. So, style of treatment-i. e. its simplicity or otherwise cannot be a determining factor in fixing up the chronological order of these works. This is so because the nature of the style was dependent on the objective of the author and not on the nature of the subject-matter—simple or subtle. Hence we would be making a great blunder in fixing up the chronological order of Prajñāpanā and Satkhandāgama if we were guided only by the fact that the treatment of the subject-matter in the Satkhandāgama is more detailed and subtle than that found in Prajñāpanāsūtra. Therefore we should tackle differently the problem of their chronological order. We should first study such works
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