A History of the Canonical Literature of the Jainas c7.11

c7.11

It was in the time of Skandila Sūri that a famine² lasted for 12 years. Some say that it worked a havoc on the Jaina scriptures while others say that it so happened that all the principal Anuyogadharas except Skandila Sūri died in Northern India.³ So Skandila summoned a council of Jaina saints at Mathurā and made up the kāliyasuya by taking a note of whatever could be gathered from them.⁴ A similar attempt to this Māthurī⁵ or Skāndilī vācanā was almost simultaneously made by Nāgārjuna⁶ at Valabhī