“Discover the Power of the JAINISM GRANTH (जैन धर्म ग्रंथ)”

Jainism does not have any religious scriptures. The only thing that he wrote was the words of his sermons, no texts were written. Nonetheless, this teachings and utterances were compiled by his main disciples called Gandharas and other disciples later on. These compendiums are mainly in ancient Prakrit language particularly Ardhamagadhi dialect.

-VANULSVIRTUOUSPATH

The Jain tradition holds that their religion is eternal(अनादि अनंत) and the teachings of the first Rishabhanatha Tirthankara lived millions of years ago.

BELIEFS

It claims that the tirthankaras preached in samavasarana, the halls of divine preaching, with gods, ascetics and householders as audience. These divine discourses were known as Śhrut Jnāna (or heard knowledge) and always consist of eleven angas and fourteen purvas. The Ganadharas (chief disciples) preserved and transmitted their conversation which consists of twelve angas (parts). It is symbolized by a tree with twelve branches.Ardhamagadhi is considered to be a spoken scriptural language by the Swetambara Jains while Digambara Jains consider it a kind of divine sound or sonic resonance.

HISTORY

In the Digambara tradition, the original scriptures were lost by about the second century C.E. The last ascetic with some knowledge of the original canon is Acharya Bhutabali. Accordingly, according to Digambara tradition, Acharya Dharasena (1st century CE), guided Acharya Pushpadanta and Acharya Bhutabali in recording remnants of these teachings in palm-leaf manuscripts. These two Āchāryas wrote the Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama (Six Part Scripture), which is considered one of the most ancient Digambara texts. They are dated between 2nd and 3rd century CE. About this time Āchārya Gunadhar produced Kaşāyapāhuda (Treatise on Passions). There two texts are called as main Digambara Agamas.

The Digambara canon consists of these two main texts, three commentaries on them and four later Anuyogas or expositions consisting of more than twenty further works.

The great commentator Virasena wrote two commentary texts on the Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama, Dhaval‑tika for the first five volumes and Maha‑dhaval‑tika for its sixth volume around 780 CE. Virasena as well as Jinasena his disciple composed a commentary named Jaya‑dhavala‑tika on Kasayapahuda [30].

There is no agreement about what constitutes canonical Anuyogas (“Expositions”). Anuyogas were written between 2