Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c30.3

c30.3

¹ Umāsvāti's *Tattvārthādigama sūtra* or 'the Manual for the understanding of the true nature of things' is held in high respect both by the Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras and is read even now by the Jains in private houses and temples. It deals with logic, psychology, cosmography, ontology and ethics of the Jains. It expounds a doctrine of categories and a theory of pramāṇas (means of proof). The author of this sūtra is known to the Digambaras as Umāsvāmin and the Śvetāmbaras name him as Umāsvāti better known as Vācaka Śramaṇa or Nagara Vācaka. According to some he lived from about 135 to 219 A.D. He must be earlier than Siddhasena Divākara who wrote a commentary on this text. It is a non canonical sūtra according to the Śvetāmbaras but the Digambaras regard it as a later canonical work. This text has been edited with the commentary by Keshavlal Premchand Mody in *Bibliotheca Indica Series* 1903-1905. There is a Hindi commentary published in 1906. J. L. Jaini's edition of the text with introduction, translation, notes and commentary in English, published at Arrah in 1920, in the Sacred Books of the Jains, Vol II, is worthy of notice. There is a German translation by H. Jacobi published in *Z D M G*, Band LX, 1906. Motilal Ladhaji's edition of this text by Umāsvātivācaka (Poona, 1927) deserves mention.