The Problem of a Historical Evaluation of the Ancient Jaina Texts

THE PROBLEM OF A HISTORICAL EVALUATIONS, OF THE ANCIENT JAINA TEXTS K K. Dixit 266.72 4. TIRUPAT * A historical evaluation of the contents of the ancient James 15 task beset with several serious difficulties The most formidable of them 18 the circumstance that we do not know for certain as to which of the

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दीक्षित पूछते हैं कि प्राचीन जैन ग्रंथ की प्राचीनता कैसे सिद्ध हो। तिथियुक्त अभिलेख या उद्धरण प्रायः उपलब्ध नहीं, अतः भाषा, छन्द और सबसे बढ़कर विषयवस्तु ही कसौटी बनती है। इसी आधार पर वे श्रमण-गृहस्थ विभाजन, आचारांग द्वितीय श्रुतस्कंध तथा व्यवहार, कल्प और निशीथ सूत्रों का काल निर्धारित करते हैं। Dixit asks how an ancient Jaina text can be dated. External evidence, a dated inscription or a citation, is almost never available, so the case must rest on form and above all on contents. He dates the monk and layman division, Acaranga II and the Vyavahara, Kalpa and Nisitha sutras.

Written by the archive’s cataloguers, not by the author.