A History of the Canonical Literature of the Jainas c7.70

c7.70

“Devarddhi’s position relative to the sacred literature of the Gainas appears therefore to us in a different light from what it is generally believed to have been. He probably arranged the already existing MSS. in a canon, taking down from the mouth of learned theologians only such works of which MSS. were not available. Of this canon a great many copies were taken, in order to furnish every seminary with books which had become necessary by the newly introduced change in the method of religious instructions. Devarddhi’s edition of Siddhânta is therefore only a redaction of the sacred books which existed before his time in nearly the same form. Any single passage in a sacred text may have been introduced by the editor, but the bulk of Siddhânta is certainly not of his making. The text of the sacred books, before the last redaction of the Siddhânta did not exist in such a vague form as it would have been liable to if it were preserved by the memory of the monks, but it was checked by MSS.”