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THUS WERE COMPOSED AND PUBLISHED SATKHANDAGAMA OR SAURSENI
JAIN SCRIPTURES Dr. RAJA RAM JAIN*
Indrabhuti Gautama, the chief disciple of the 24th and the last Tirthamnkara Mahavira (599-527 B. C.), was the first Ganadhara, who rendered the Dwadasviga-vani (knowledge of twelve canonical texts) of Mahavira in Sutta (a sort of formulae in prose) form. The sutta knowledge was preserved for centuries in the form of “Kantha-Parampara (oral transmission). Gradually with the elapse of time, the knowledge decayed due to oral-tradition and by the time of Acarya Dharasena (C. 85 A. D.) it was preserved only partially. Hence, in order to preserve the remaining knowledge he transmitted "PurvaSahitya" (Pre-Mahavira Jain-litt.) of Dristivadanga (the twelfth AngaCononical-litt) and part of Vyakhya-Prjnapti-Sutta (the 5th Angacanon)-knowledge to his two trusted and intelligent disciples -Acarya Puspadanta and Acarya Bhutabali. The two Acaryas who were distinguished scholars, rendered the knowledge received into 6000 Suttas in between 85-135 A. D. which were originally known as KhandaSiddhanta or Satkhanda-Siddhanta or Paramagama or Agama-Siddhanta and finally as Satkhandagama.
Acarya Padmanandin or Kunda Kunda (C. 2nd Century A. D.), Acarya Samantabhadra (2nd Century A. D.), Acarya Samakunda (3rd Century A. D.), Acarya Tumbulura (4th Century A. D.) and Acarya Bappadeva (6th to 8th Century A. D.) wrote vast commentaries in about 5 lacs Slokas (Verses) in different languages intelligible to common people but these commentaries were either destroyed or are unavailable due to some unfortunate and unknown reasons.
In the above chain of commentators the last was Virasena Swami, who wrote commentary on Sat Khandagama known as Dhawala which contains 72,000 Slokas (Verses). Today, only this commentary is available and is published. The commentary was named Dhawala probably because the writing work was finished on Kartika Triyodasi (Wednesday) of Dhawala-Paksa (Moonlit-fortnight) in the year 737 V. S. * Prof. & Head, Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit, H. D. Jain
College, Arrah.
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