DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29591#0045
Introduction
4i
any matter of a purely dogmatical nature, but only lectures of a gene-
ral religious content, together with some legends calculated to illu-
strate the excellency of ascetic life and the great power acquired by its
followers1. By and by, probably during a period of time when these
old works began more frequently to become the objects of scientific
interpretation according to the strict principles of dogmatics, philo-
sophy and of scholarly teaching, there was felt a need of adding
to them some expositions on doctrinal matters of a more scientific
character. Consequently, our text was increased by, one might
well say, a later part, consisting of these nine chapters dealing
with purely theoretical matters and of apparently rather late
date; they were perhaps not all added at the same time as they
do not form an uninterrupted series, but were presumably col-
lected from different sources and at various times. I do not
venture to judge of the style and language of these chapters, as
it is really difficult to form an opinion in such matters con-
cerning this sort of literature — to call it poetry would scarcely
be correct. However, it appears to me that the rather scanty
supply of words outside the purely dogmatical language, the
frequent recurrence of the same expressions, and the someti-
mes endless repetition of verses which differ from each other
only by the alteration of one single word, and the often very
bad metre &c, are points in favour of assuming a single authorship
of all these dogmatical chapters. And, if we take into consideration
the references to canonical works discussed above, which seem
partly to point to a rather late period, we may perhaps suggest that
these parts of our text were added at a time when the canon of
the Svetambara’s had already gone through a long period of de-
velopment. This suggestion is, however, to some degree invalid-
ated by the facts that ahga 4 § 36 enumerates the thirty-six
chapters of our text with only slight deviations from the pre-
sent state, and that the KS. § 147 speaks of’the thirty-six unasked
questions’ recited by Mahavlra during his last joajjusan. However,
1 The examples from the old legends and mythology have always
been used in India with great predilection in all sorts of religious,
moral, philosophical &c. works, in order to illustrate the rules of faith
and conduct given in them. Even a work preaching such secular
wisdom as the Kautiliya makes frequent use of this method, cp. Jacobi
SBBAW. 19 r 1, p. 968 ff.; Charpentier WZKM. XXVIII, 211 ff.
4i
any matter of a purely dogmatical nature, but only lectures of a gene-
ral religious content, together with some legends calculated to illu-
strate the excellency of ascetic life and the great power acquired by its
followers1. By and by, probably during a period of time when these
old works began more frequently to become the objects of scientific
interpretation according to the strict principles of dogmatics, philo-
sophy and of scholarly teaching, there was felt a need of adding
to them some expositions on doctrinal matters of a more scientific
character. Consequently, our text was increased by, one might
well say, a later part, consisting of these nine chapters dealing
with purely theoretical matters and of apparently rather late
date; they were perhaps not all added at the same time as they
do not form an uninterrupted series, but were presumably col-
lected from different sources and at various times. I do not
venture to judge of the style and language of these chapters, as
it is really difficult to form an opinion in such matters con-
cerning this sort of literature — to call it poetry would scarcely
be correct. However, it appears to me that the rather scanty
supply of words outside the purely dogmatical language, the
frequent recurrence of the same expressions, and the someti-
mes endless repetition of verses which differ from each other
only by the alteration of one single word, and the often very
bad metre &c, are points in favour of assuming a single authorship
of all these dogmatical chapters. And, if we take into consideration
the references to canonical works discussed above, which seem
partly to point to a rather late period, we may perhaps suggest that
these parts of our text were added at a time when the canon of
the Svetambara’s had already gone through a long period of de-
velopment. This suggestion is, however, to some degree invalid-
ated by the facts that ahga 4 § 36 enumerates the thirty-six
chapters of our text with only slight deviations from the pre-
sent state, and that the KS. § 147 speaks of’the thirty-six unasked
questions’ recited by Mahavlra during his last joajjusan. However,
1 The examples from the old legends and mythology have always
been used in India with great predilection in all sorts of religious,
moral, philosophical &c. works, in order to illustrate the rules of faith
and conduct given in them. Even a work preaching such secular
wisdom as the Kautiliya makes frequent use of this method, cp. Jacobi
SBBAW. 19 r 1, p. 968 ff.; Charpentier WZKM. XXVIII, 211 ff.