A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s3.3

v2.c20.s3.3

It is extremely difficult to establish a chronology of the earlier non-canonical Jaina literature from the 1st to the 8th century A.D. It is true that we possess a large number of so-called Paṭṭāvalis, Therāvalis, genealogical lists of the teachers and heads of schools, which frequently contain very exact chronological data. On the other hand, these lists often contradict one another: sometimes there are external reasons why credence should not be given to them, and yet it is scarcely feasible to regard them as pure invention. A further difficulty is that frequently the same names occur several times, so that it would be necessary to devote a separate investigation to each single author and each individual work.