Studies in Jainism

Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

Page 48

JAINISM : ITS PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS
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The Agamas' are grouped under three classes: Anga, Pūrva, and Prakirna. The first group, i.e. Anga, consists of twelve subclasses: Acara, Sūtrakrta. Sthāna, Samaväya, Vyākhyā-prajñapti or Bhagavatī, jñātrdharmakathā, Upasaka-daśāka, Antakrd-daśākaAnuttaraupapātikadaśāka, Praśna-vyakarana, Vipäka-Sutra, and Drstivāda.?
The second group, i.e. Pūrva, consists of fourteen subclasses: Utpada, Agrāyaṇiya, Virya-pravāda, Asti-nastipravāda, Jñana-pravāda, Satya-pravāda, Atma-pravāda, Karma-pravada, Pratyākhyāna, Vidyānuvāda, Kalyana, Prāņavāya, Kriya-visāla, and Loka-bindu-sāra.
The third group, i.e. Prakirna, consists of sixteen sub
1.
In the matter of the religious scriptures, there is some difference of opinion between the two sects of the Jains—the Digambaras and Svetambaras. About the time of the Maurya emperor Candragupta, on account of a terrible famine in North India, a large body of Jaina ascetics under the leadership of Bhadrabahu, with his royal disciple Candragupta, who renounced his kingdom and joined the party, migrated to the South for the purpose of obtaining support and sustenance during the period of the famine. But a large section of the Jaina ascetics stayed behind in North India. When the body of ascetics who migrated to the South returned home to the North, after the famine conditions had been over, they found that their brethren who stayed at home had changed their habits very much. On account of this change of habits, there arose a cleavage between the two, which is supposed to be the origin of a schism within the community resulting in the two sections--the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras--, the former school associated with those that stayed at home and the latter championed by those who migrated towards the South. The books preserved by the northern group were not accepted as authoritative by the Digambaras, who maintained that the original texts revealed by the tirthańkara-parameșțihin and preserved by the succession of teachers were lost completely, and what the Svetāmbaras claimed as the authoritative texts were spurious substitutes for the lost originals. This controversy still persists between these two groups. Of course, this contention of the Digambaras is not accepted by the Svetāmbaras, who claim that their texts are quite valid, inasmuch as they represent the originals. About the time of the Conference at Pataliputra, after the twelve years' famine, Drsțivāda was lost, and the Svetāmbaras therefore recognized only eleven. But the Digambara tradition which is followed in South India recognizes all the twelve.
2.