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JAIN LITERATURE
From very early times right up to the present century the scholarly language of India has been Sanskrit. As the language of serious communication it has long occupied a position similar to that of Latin in Western Europe, indeed there was a serious proposal that Sanskrit should become the official language of the Republic of India, updated, doubtless, with modern technical and other vocabulary. Closely related to Sanskrit were the ancient languages spoken by the general populace of northern India: these are known as Prakrit languages. The early Buddist writings are in one such Prakrit, called Pali. The early Jain scriptures are in the Prakrit which Mahavira is presumed to have spoken, Ardhamagadhi. In pious Jain belief Ardhamagadhi was the original language from which all others descended, and was understood by all the creatures to whom Mahavira preached.
The earliest religious texts of Jainism, those which make up the accepted canon of the Svetambaras, were originally transmitted orally and were not written down until many centuries after their compilation. The Svetambara tradition is that the canonical works were preserved in the memory of the monks for many
generations, being handed on by word of mouth in the Jain community. There came a time when there was danger that the holy scriptures would be forgotten. Accordingly a large council of monks was held at Pataliputra (Modern Patna, in Bihar) to collect all the scriptures and preserve the authentic text. The date of the council at Pateliputra cannot be determined with historical accuracy: if it was indeed, as tradition holds, some 160 years after Mahavira's nirvana, that would place it in the early fourth century BC. Modern critics, however, are fairly confident that at least parts of the ancient texts are of later date. At any rate, tradition holds that the 12 texts known as the Anga texts were set in order at this council.
The Digambaras do not accept this tradition: they believe that the original 12 Anga texts have long been lost and they revere a different collection of sacred scriptures. Leaving these problems aside, there is no doubt that the texts as they exist today are of very ancient origin. Although oral transmission long remained the norm, it is probable that some texts at least were written down by the first century AD. Setting in order, and preserving the canon was not by any means a short simple process: two more
councils were held, at Mathura and at Valabhi (in modern Saurashtra), before the final council, also at Valabhi, took on the task of producing a definitive written collection of the old texts, and it is believed that this collection was the same as the Svetambara canon as it exists today.
The recension of the canon in the fifth century AD marked the end of the use of Ardhamagadhi as a language of literary composition and Jain writers thereafter turned to writing in Sanskrit or in the languages which were current by then. Much of the earlier noncanonical literature of the Jains is in the regional Prakrits: the relationship of these to Ardhamagadhi and to the later languages is too complicated for consideration here. Suffice it to mention Maharastri, a western form of Prakrit, which is used widely by the Svetambara writers in the version known by scholars as Jain Maharastri, and Jain Sauraseni, a dialect from the central regions, used by Digambara writers.
From around the seventh centure AD a literary form of Prakrit developed, Apabhramsa, and Jain writers wrote extensively in this language. Apabhramsa came to connote the literary form of the speech of the provincial cultured classes.
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