A History of the Canonical Literature of the Jainas c5.42

c5.42

This finishes the question about the composition of 12 *Aṅgas*, but there remains one more knotty problem to be tackled before we can finish the discussion about the genesis of the *dvādaśāṅgī*. It refers to the order of the composition of the various sections of *Diṭṭhivāya*. As already noted on p. 6, there are five sections of this *Diṭṭhivāya* viz. (1) *Parikamma*, (2) *Sutta* (at times used in plural), (3) *Puvvagaya*, (4) *Aṇuoga* and (5) *Cūliyā*. Now we find that these 5 sections are mentioned in two different orders in the religious works of the *Jainas*. For instance, *Nandī*, on one hand, mentions the five sections in the order noted above, whereas some works such as Hemacandra Sūri's *Abhidhānacintāmaṇi* (II, 160¹), Devendra Sūri's com. (p. 17)² on his own work com. (pp. 130b-131a) on *Samavāya*. Siddhasena Gaṇi has also endorsed this very view in his com. (p. 208b) on *Pavayaṇasāruddhāra*. In Siddhasena Gaṇi's *bhāṣyānusāriṇī ṭīkā* (p. 94) on *Tattvārtha* (1, 20) and in *Triṣaṣṭi* (X, 5, 172) only one view is mentioned i. e. to say 14 *Puvvas* were first composed. Anyhow we can see that there have been two views propounded in this connection at least as early as the date of the *Cuṇṇi* referred to on p. 4.