Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 58

Sec. 17
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
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the introductory part of Dhavalal that the teachings of Lord Mahāvīra were arranged into twelve Angas by his disciple Gautama Indrabhūti and they were transmitted from preceptor to disciple by the verbal recitation till gradually they fell successively into oblivion. Only some portions of them were known to Dharasena who passed time by practising austerities in the Chandra Guphā of Girinagara in the land of Saurāstra (modern Kathiawār). Having felt the necessity of preserving the knowledge, he taught to two sages, who later become celebrated as Puspadanta and Bhūtabali, portions of the fifth Anga:Viāhapanạıtti and of the twelfth Anga Ditthivāda. These fragmentary works were subsequently committed to writing in Sūtra form by these two famous disciples of Dharasena ; the former composed the first 177 Sutras and the latter reduced the rest to writing, the total number of sūtras being 6000. This was done soon after Lohācārya, who was the last of the Sruta-jñānīs and lived upto 683 years after the Nirvāṇa of Lord Mahāvīra, which took place according to the statement of the commentator, Vīrasena, 605 years before the beginning of the Saka era."
To continue the Svetāmbara tradition Devarddhi Ganin arranged the canons in order with the help of scholars after a collection of available MSS. and took down from the mouth of the theologicians such texts as had no MSS. Many copies were made to supply the seminaries. So his edition of the Siddhantas is only a redaction of the sacred texts which existed before his time in nearly the same form, although there might have been some interpolations made by the redactors. But much of it is genuinely old, even though a disparity is found in it, as it has undergone change with the march of time.
From this tradition it may be said with a tolerable certainty that the Viyāhapannatti, as it now exists, was also committed to writing in the same council along with the other canonical works.
Introduction to Şarkhandāgama, p.1, Dr. H.L.Jain, M.A.,LL.B.,
D. Litt. ? Saskhandügama, Vol. 1 Introduction, p. 13 ff. 8 Cf. Jacobi, Kalpa Sutra, p. 30