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Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
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JAIN LITERATURE IN KANNADA
Jain Literature in General :
Jain literature in its carliest phase is found in Prakri viz., Ardhamāgadhi and Jaina saurasenī. According to the Śvetāmbara tradition, after Lord Mahavira taugh the Sacred Law in the Ardhamāgadhi language, his teachings, as received and composed by Sudharma (the 5th Ganadhara) in the twelve Angas, were preserved through svādhyāya on the tongues of generations of monks for about a thousand years and then were finally put to writing, more or less, in the same language' at the Vallabhi Council convened by Devardhigani in 454 A.D. According to the Digambara tradition, the canonical knowledge of the twelve Angas was almost lost except some portion of the 12th Anga and a part of the 5th Anga which have been preserved in the Satkhandāgama by the great foresight of Acarya Dharasena and the sincere efforts of the two learned monks Puspadanta and Bhutabali, who composed it in Jaina sauraseni between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.? Besides almost all other works of the procanon of the Digambaras have also been composed in Jaina sauraseni.
After the appcarance of the principal canonical works in Ardhamāgadhi and Jaina sauraseni, commentaries of varied types were written in Jaina Maharastri, Jaina saurasent and also in Sanskrit. Thereafter Jaina teachers and scholars commenced to produce original works in Sanskrit, in addition to those in Prakrit,
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