JAINA LITERATURE. [ PART 1 ] : UPSC Daily Important Topic | 12 April 2022

JAINA LITERATURE. [ PART 1 ]

✓The sacred books of the Jainas are collectively known as the Siddhanta or Agama.

✓The language of the earliest texts is an eastern dialect of Prakrit known as Ardha Magadhi.

✓The Jaina monastic order came to be divided into the Shvetambara and Digambara schools, perhaps in about the 3rd century CE.

✓The Shvetambara canon includes the 12 Angas, 12 Uvamgas (Upangas), 10 Painnas (Prakirnas), 6 Cheya Suttas (Cheda Sutras), 4 Mula Suttas (Mula Sutras), and a number of individual texts such as the Nandi Sutta (Nandi Sutra) and Anugodara (Anuyogadvara).

✓Both schools accept and give prime importance to the Angas.

✓According to Shvetambara tradition, the Angas were compiled at a council held at Pataliputra. The compilation of the entire canon is supposed to have taken place in the 5th or 6th century at a council held in Valabhi in Gujarat, presided over by Devarddhi Kshamashramana.