The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c7.7

c7.7

We have seen that the Angas are not additions to something previously existing. Tradition, on the other hand, will have it differently in speaking of the so-called Puvva. They are no longer in existence. To explain the word, Abhayadeva in his comm. on Samav. 130b says that the Angas were composed by Mahāvīra’s Gaṇadharas (§22) either immediately in the spirit of the preceding (*pūrva*) oral tradition or indirectly after first (*pūrva*) having established that tradition¹. But he does not derive the Angas from the Puvvas. If this had been the case, the Puvvas would have been absorbed in the Angas. Instead we read in the survey of what the A. contain (Samav. 129a; Nandi 236b) that the 12th of them (which was lost) included the P. and other topics. Hence it follows that the two series were parallel to, not dependent on, each other.