Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 29

STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
[Ch. I
It is known from this Dhavala that the learning of the reader of the Srutas ended with the completion of the study of the tenth Purva and he received the worship of the goddesses, Rohini and other 500 Mahavidgas and Angusthaprasena and other 700 Alpavidyas. If he did not fall from the moral path out of greed, he was entitled to Jinahood.
The Purvas related controversies held between Lord Mahāvīra and his rival teachers. The Master wanted to combat the opinions of other religious leaders belonging to heterodox sects in defence of the doctrines he professed. So there was no more necessity of these discussions after his demise. This led to the composition of the new canon and the old one was in neglect and went into oblivion.
Weber thinks that "the development of the Svetambara sect had arrived at a point where the diversity of its tenets from those embodied in the Drstivada became too visible to be passed over." So the Drstivada was neglected, but Jacobi holds by contradicting this view that the Digambaras who have lost the Purvas and the Angas also, maintain that the Purvas existed even after the completion of the new canon.
Of the existing Agamas the Acaranga Sutra gives an exposition of the disciplinary and monastic rules in the two Books called Srutaskandhas (Suyakkhandha). The Sutrakrtanga deals with the faith and heretical doctrines, viz. those of one hundred and eighty Kriyavadins, eighty-four Akriyāvādins, sixty-seven Ajñānikas, thirty-two Vainayikavādins. It shows what the religious life should be in general and how it leads to liberation.
The Sthānanga Sutra treats of substance (Dravya) from different points of views (Sthanas), for example, division of time beginning from the unit of Avalika upto Sirsaprahelikā, then
1 S. B. E. (Vol. xxii) Introduction. p. XLVI. see also Indian Antiguary, Vol. XVII.
Sthananga Sutra-(S. 727) section-10. It can be compared with the contents of the Anguttara Nikaya of the Buddhists.