Tattvartha Sutra

Author(s): Umaswati, Umaswami, Manu Doshi
Publisher: Shrutratnakar Ahmedabad

Page 20

TATTVÄRTHA SUTRA
after passing away of the Lord to decide about the correct version. It seems that the version so brought out gave justice to both the groups and was considered generally acceptable. The radical section of the unclad group was perhaps dissatisfied with that outcome, but there was no cleavage at that time. That uneasy situation seems to have continued till the time, when Tattvärtha Sutra was composed. It is therefore no wonder that the book does not distinguish between the clad and unclad order. That has made it acceptable to Shwetämbar as well as Digambar Jains.
The division between the two groups could have begun after the second century, when the unclad group formally disowned the traditional scriptures on the ground that they no longer represented the original teaching of the Lord and started composing their own books, which justified only the unclad order. The difference became acute by the time of Sarvärthasiddhi, which presents the unclad order as the only way that can lead to liberation. With that end in view, the author might have altered some of the sutras that were not in conformity with Digambar views, added a few on his own and given new interpretations to several others. This accounts for the difference in number of sutras and for slightly differing versions of the text. In due course, the text adopted by Bhäshya came to be known as Shwetämbar text and that adopted by Sarvärthasiddhi as Digambar one. It is, however, noticed that while the text adopted by Sarvärthasiddhi is consistently resorted to by Digambar scholars, there happen to be minor variations in the text resorted to by Shwetämbar ones.