Jain scriptures are popularly known as
Aagamas. The term means what comes out (from the mouth of the Lord). It is
generally accepted that whatever Lord Mahavir taught after gaining
omniscience, was compiled by His Ganadharas in 12 parts, Sanskrit word for
part is Anga. These 12 compilations are therefore called as 12 Angas and
are collectively known as Dwadashangi. The foremost of these Angas is
Aacharang Sutra. Other well known Angas are Sutrakritang, Samavayang,
Sthanang and Vyakhya Pragnapti which is more popularly known as Bhagavati
Sutra. Based on these Angas, the seers also compiled 12 auxiliary works
that came to be known as Upangas. These 24 compilations should have been
completed by the time of Jambuswami who was the second successor of the
reli gious order set up by Lord Mahavir and also was the last omniscient
of the current time cycle.
It should be noted that these Angas
and Upangas were not written for a long time. They were orally passed on
by the preceptors to their pupils. Memory of the omniscient being
infallible, they could have been retained in the original form up to the
time of Jambuswami. Immediate successors of Jamuswami were known as Shrut
Kevalis meaning that they knew all Angas and Upangs thoroughly well.
During their time, however some variations seem to have crept in, since
Samavayang and Nandisutra indicate some varying versions of Sutras. Shrut
Kevalis and other prominent Acharyas also prepared subsidiary works known
as Mul Sutras, Chhed Sutras etc. which were considered authorized versions
of the Lord’s teaching. Dashvaikalik, Uttaradhyayan and Avasyak are the
most we ll known Sutras belonging to this category. By the time of
Bhadrabahuswami who was the last Shrut Kevali, there came to be quite a
few compilations that were admitted as Aagamas. They were written in
Ardhamagadhi which was the language understood in the a rea where Lord
Mahavir went about during His life.
About 160 years after the Lord’s
departure, when Bhadrabahuswami was the head of religious order and Nand
dynasty was ruling over Magadha, Pataliputra, the capital city became the
center of learning and knowledge. That time, there occurred a severe
famine that seems to have raged for 12 long years. During that period of
shortage and scarcity, it was hard for Jain monks to observe the code of
conduct laid down by the Lord. Bhadrabahuswami therefore decided to
migrate to south along with many followers. (Ac cording to another
version, he went to Nepal.) For those who stayed behind, it was hard to
remember accurately whatever they had learnt. Hence there came about
varying versions of Aagamas. Condition might have reached a chaotic stage.
A convention was th erefore called at Patliputra under the leadership of
venerable Sthulibhadra, who was the principal disciple of Bhadrabahuswami.
That convention prepared uniform version of all the Aagamas. In Jain
traditions this is known as the first Vachana of Aagamas.
The version so prepared was however
not found acceptable to most of those who had migrated to south. They
considered the version unauthentic and contended that the original Aagamas
had got lost. This was the first major cleavage among the followers of Lor
d Mahavir. In this connection it would be interesting to dwell a little in
the background of this cleavage. When the Lord renounced the worldly life,
he seems to have retained a single cloth to cover His body. During the
first year of His renounced life, that cloth seems to have been worn, torn
or entangled in thicket somewhere. After that He did not care to get
another one. For the rest of life He therefore stayed without clothes. The
immediate followers that He got after omniscience were also presumabl y
unclad. Later on, followers of Parshwa traditions acknowledged His
leadership. They were covering their bodies with two pieces of cloth.
While admitting them in His fold, the Lord does not seem to have objected
to their being clad. Thus His Sangha cons tituted clad as well as unclad
monks amicably staying together. The amity between these two however might
not have survived after the age of omniscients. Though there was no open
dispute, there could have been some misunderstanding and unfriendliness
betw een these two groups.
Venerable Sthulibhadra and most of
those who stayed in north used to cover their bodies with plain, white
cloth; while those who had migrated with Bhadrabahuswami were mostly
unclad. With the open cleavage on the authenticity of the Aagamas. the
latter to ok pride in their being true unclad followers of the Lord and in
due course came to be known as Digamabars which means skyclad. Those on
the other side came to be known as Shwetamabars on account of white cloth
that they wore. The history of the Aagamas f rom that time onwards thus
takes two different courses.
Even after Patliputra convention,
Aagamas remained unwritten and continued to be passed on orally from
preceptor to pupil. Memorizing must have taken its own toll. Moreover with
the fall of Mauryan dynasty in 150 B.C., Patliputra ceased to be the main
cen ter of Jainism, because Mitra dynasty that took over, was not
favorably inclined to it. There was therefore large scale migration of
Jain monks and laymen towards Udaygiri(Near present Bhuvaneshwar) in the
south-east and towards Mathura in the west. All t hese factors contributed
once again to variations in the version of Sutras. By the end of the first
century, most probably in 97 A.D., another convention was called at
Mathura under the leadership of Hon’ble Skandilacharya. Curiously enough,
another conv ention was simultaneously held at Valabhipur in Saurashtra
under the leadership of Hon’ble Nagarjunacharya. There were some
differences in the versions arrived at the two conventions. We are not
exactly sure whether any attempt was made to reconcile the v arying
versions. Any way, this is called second Vachana of the Aagamas.
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