Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

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Sec. I] STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
It has been observed in the first and second sections of the first chapter that the BhS stands as the fifth Anga in original form. But so far as the text is concerned, the chronological order has not been maintained except in one case of the Samavāyānga Sütru, for parallel references occur in the works of the Upānga group', viz. Aupapātika Sütra, Rajapraśniya Sūtra, Jivābhigama Sūtra, Jambūdvīpa Prajslapti and Prairāpanā Sūtra and even in the two miscellaneous texts-- Nandi Sūtra and Anuyogadvāra Sūtra and also in the Avaśyaka Sútra.
Thus it is apparently clear that the BKS was not complet. ed before they were codified, as it is evidenced by the fact of the forms of the words and sentences of its reference to those texts.
The study of certain stereotyped descriptions, the epithet ornantia, the so-called •Vannao' (Varņaka) as already mentioned in the first chapter reveals that the Bhs had undergone a complete transformation till it attained its present size, having suffered loss of forms of words. but gained an additon of new contents to it with the march of time. Date of the BhS:
The internal evidences of the Bhs as already mentioned show that the core of the contents of the subject-matter of this canonical work, according to the tradition recorded in it, existed along with the other Angas during a period anterior to that of Lord Mahāyira, but the entire environment of it is post-Mahāvīran. So a truly synthetic view should be formed to determine its date by taking into consideration all the internal and external evidences as far as possible.
The date of the complete Bhs as it stands to-day, cannot be assigned to a period later than the beginning of the sixth century A. D. on the basis of the historical data. But one may look back to the period of the sixth century B. C. on the same
i Vide Supra Ch. I, Sec, 2.