Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 368

Sec. I]
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
343
ground of Indian culture and civilization froin the Vedic age up to that of this canonical work.
Behind this historical background there was a considerable number of the Brāhmana and Nirgrant ha literatures and other works as recorded in this canonical work.
In connection with the topic 'Courses of study' it has already been mentioned that the vedic branches of education and learning consisted of the studies of the following subjects as revealed by the titles of the works, viz. the Rg, Yaju, Sāma and Atharva Vedas, Itihāsa-purānas (the fifth Veda), Nigghantu (the sixth Veda, Nāmakosa), six Vedāngas, six Upāngas (Sadamgovanga) work on Rahasya, Şasthitantra (Kāpilya-śāstra), Sankhāna (arithmatic, gañitakhanda), Silckhā (phonetics), Kappa (ritual), Vāgaraña (grammar), Nirutta (exegesis), Jotisāmaya (Astronomy-Astiology) and also many other Nayas (Logic) and philosophy of the Brāhmaṇas and Parivrājalas?
This list of the Brālmana works is also found in the Aupapātiku Sūtra.
Here the fifth Veda is represented by the Itihāsa-Purāna, while the Anuyoyadvāra refers to the Bhārata and the Rāmāyana in its place.
TIT
The Upāngas' formed the explanatory parts of the sujects discussed in the four Vedāngas and the Şasthitantra was the work on the Sankhya system of thought dealing with the sixty terms or topics.
I BAS, 2, 1, 90; 9, 33, 380, 383; 11, 12, 436. * Aupaj ātika Sutra, Section-77,
Anuyogadvara Sūtra, Section, 41. The later Brāhmaṇical tradition says that the Upārgas were four and they consited of the Purānas, Nyāya treatises, Mimāvisā works and Dharmaśāstras. See R. Fick, 'Social organization in Noth-East India in Buddha's time' p. 203. Vide, Dr. B. C. Law's 'India as described in the Early texts of Buddhism and Jainism'.