The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c7.39

c7.39

§42. Thus, when we replace the mechanical arrangement just given by a critical one, the result is as follows.¹ Apart from the āvassaya formulae the most ancient style presents itself in the Āyāra, Sūy., the Utt., the old Cheyasuttas, the Isibhā-siyāim, and in portions of the Dasaveyāliya. Significant are old grammatical forms, the triṣṭubh, jagatī, vaitālīya, and aupacchandasaka metres, a primitive form of the Āryā,² the opening formula suyam me, āusam, etc., the concluding one ti bemi, and, of course, the subjects, especially so far as they are formed by the will of self-preservation and the fundaments of the order. A metrical investigation made by JACOBI, as was said before, resulted in surmising the origin of the most ancient texts at about the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. It hardly needs to be mentioned that the characteristics referred to are distributed differently upon the individual texts. The younger parts of the Canon show the younger grammatical forms, the common Āryā taking the place of the Śloka, and partly in them a symmetrical arrangement of subjects. This can be observed in most Paiṇṇas and in the Nijjuttis among the Mūlasuttas which are not far from the commentaries bearing the same name (§ 43). A good number of texts join in groups thus unveiling the peculiar taste of the author's times and later on becoming a mere habit. Considering the rôle the figure 10 plays in the titles, we speak of dasā-texts. In the second half of the Angas we come across clichés of stories called vagga, and thus we may sum up Dhammak., Antag., Aṇutt. and Uvanga 8-12 as vagga-texts. In Ṭhāṇ. and Samav. conceptions and concrete subjects occurring in the teaching have been arranged according to number just as has been the case with details from discipline taught in the Āyāradasāo and some other texts by the therā bhagavanto, so that we are entitled to speak of category-texts. Further, there is the veḍha metre, the locus classicus of which are Samos. and Jiṇac. They are the prototype for numberless passages in tne later Angas, the Uvangas and the Āyāradasāo, passages meant to introduce or to characterise a scene or an object. Here catchwords indicating the opening and the ending of the passage to be supplied served the purpose. Hence we find many artificial veḍha-texts next to the genuine ones mentioned to which we have to add Anga 10, 6 and 4 sections in Jambudd. The same distinction applies to the case of the dialogue-texts. On the one hand we have Viy. alone. It is true that here already question and reply are conventional, but the general impression is that of true life thanks to the variety of questioning individuals as well as to personal traits in Mahāvīra's answers. At any rate, the Viy. is the prototype for the various artificial dialogues where the appearance of antiquity was combined with methodical fitness. The latter, above all, seemed necessary for the systematical explanations in the Uvangas. Their typical name is pannatti.