The (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: "Scripture in Six Parts") is the foremost and oldest Digambara Jain sacred text. According to Digambara tradition, the original canonical scriptures of the Jains were totally lost within a few centuries of ''

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

'' of Mahavira. Therefore the ''Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama'' is the most revered Digambara text that has been given the status of ''āgama''. The importance of the ''Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama'' to the Digambaras can be judged by the fact that, the day its ''Dhavalā'' commentary was completed, it is commemorated on the ''Śrūta Pañcami'', a day when all the

Jain scriptures Jain literature (Sanskrit: जैन साहित्य) refers to the literature of the Jain religion. It is a vast and ancient literary tradition, which was initially transmitted orally. The oldest surviving material is contained in the ca ...

are venerated. The ''Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama'', the first ''āgama'', is also called the "Prathama Śrūta-Skandha", while the ''Pancha Paramāgama'' by Kundakunda are referred to as the second ''āgama'' or Dvitiya Śrūta-Skandha.

Origins

It is said to have been based on oral teaching of the Digambara monk, acharya ''Dharasena'' (1st Century CE). According to the tradition, alarmed at the gradual dwindling of scriptural knowledge, he summoned two monks, Pushpadanta and Bhūtabali to a cave, known as ''Chandra Gupha'', or the Moon Cave, his retreat in mount

Girnar Girnar is an ancient hill in Junagadh, Gujarat, India. Geology Mount Girnar is a major igneous plutonic complex which intruded into the basalts towards the close of the Deccan Trap period. The rock types identified in this complex are ga ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, and communicated what he remembered out of originally vast extent of sacred Jain writings. He taught them portions of the fifth Anga Viahapannatti (Vyakhya Prajnapti) and of the twelfth Anga Ditthivada (Drstivada). These were subsequently reduced to writing in Sutra form by his pupils. Pushpadanta composed the first 177 Sutras and his colleague Bhutabali wrote the rest, the total being 6000 Sutras.

Dhavala Commentary

Achrya

Virasena Acharya Virasena (792-853 CE), also known as Veerasena, was a Digambara monk and belonged to the lineage of Acharya Kundakunda. He was an Indian mathematician and Jain philosopher and scholar. He was also known as a famous orator and an accompl ...

received the ancient Shatkhandagama and Kashyaprabhrita texts through the lineage tradition. At Vatagram, he wrote a 72,000 shloka commentary on Shatkhandagama (known as Dhavala and the last section called Mahadhavala) and 20,000 shloka commentary the Kashyaprabhrita (known as Jayadhavala). After he passed away his disciple Acharya

Jinasena Jinasena (c. 9th century CE) was a monk and scholar in the ''Digambara'' tradition of Jainism. He was patronized by the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha I. He was the author of ''Adipurana'' and '' Mahapurana''.Rashtrakuta ruler Amoghavarsha in 838 AD (or Jagatunga according to some scholars) The palm leaf writings of this long work, were preserved in the Digambara holy place of

Shravanabelagola Shravanabelagola () is a town located near Channarayapatna of Hassan district in the Indian state of Karnataka and is from Bengaluru. The Gommateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola is one of the most important tirthas (pilgrimage de ...

at the Siddhanta Basadi. Later they were shifted to

Mudabidri Moodabidri ( kn, ಮೂಡುಬಿದಿರೆ ''Mūḍubidire''; also called Mudbidri, Moodbidre and Bedra), is a town and taluk in Dakshina Kannada district. It lies 34 km northeast of the district headquarters, Mangalore, in Karna ...

, a temple town in South-West

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. The palm leaf manuscript, itself written during the Rashtrakura rule, is still preserved. Some of the leaves contain beautiful paintings of historical importance A copy was reputed to have been at the Malked (Manyakhet) Mutt, but that has not survived. At Mudabidri, these scriptures were treated with great reverence, but became mere objects of worship, and unavailable to outside scholars. Ordinary householders were not permitted to study these. ''Digambara āgamas'' like ''Satkhandāgama'' and the ''Kasāyapāhuda'' were in a state of neglect and were not studied or made available to the community.

Revival to the Modern Society

With the support of Manikchand of Sholapur during 1896 to 1920, the Moodbidrai manuscript were transcribed in modern Nagari and Kannad scripts, without the knowledge of the Moodbidri temple trustees. In the 20th century, Dr. Hiralal Jain was one of the first few lay scholars who decided to retrieve the āgamas, and bring to light with systematic editing and proof reading. With the help of his scholar friends like Pandit

Nathuram Premi Nathuram Premi was a writer, publisher, poet, editor, and linguist in the field of Jainism as well as Hindi literature. A budding poet, he wrote under the nom de plume of "Premi". Although belonging to the Digambara sect of Jainism, he adopted a ...

and Jamunaprasada Sub-Judge, he raised the funds to publish the āgamas, and set out to extricate the āgamas from Mudabidri, where the original handwritten

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

manuscripts had lain for centuries, unstudied. Dr Hiralal Jain, Pt

and Jamunaprasada sub-judge together managed to convince Seth Sitabray Gulabray, a wealthy land-owner from Vidisha ( Bundelkhand,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

) belonging to the Paravāra community, to donate Rs. 30,000 for the cause of editing and publishing the Satkhandāgama along with its Dhavalā commentary, expertly edited and accompanied by an excellent Hindi translation. This donation enabled Dr Hiralal Jain to work together with Dr. A.N. Upadhye, close friend and a scholar of Prakrit. Dr. Hiralal Jain brought together a team of scholars including, Pt. Phulchandra Shastri, Pt. Kailashchandra Shastri, Sh. Sheryansh Kumar Jain Shastri, Pt. Hiralal Shastri and Pt. Balachandra Shastri started the project of revival and study of the

Digambara ''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being '' Śvētāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic practice of neither possessing ...

āgama. These scholars had to face stiff opposition from the monks and the traditional srāvakas who were opposed to the very concept of printing religious scriptures as they felt that printing would undermine the purity of the scripture. In a period of twenty years, the Satkhandāgama, along with its massive Dhavalā and Mahādhavalā commentaries was edited from the original palm leaf manuscripts and published after very careful proof reading in consultation with senior Jaina scholars like Pt.

and Pt. Devakinandan Nayak.

Subject matter of the Agama and its commentaries

The ''Satkhandāgama'', as the name suggests, is a scripture in six parts. The six parts are: # Jiva Sthana (Categories of Living Beings) # Kshudraka Bandha (Minutiae of Bondage) # Bandhasvamitva (Ownership of Bondage) # Vedana (Perception) # Vargana (Divisions of Karmas) # Mahabandha (Great Bondage) ''Satkhandāgama'' postulates karma theory, using a number of technical terms defining various concepts and mathematical notions. The first three parts deal with the karma philosophy from the view point of the soul which is the agent of the bondage and the last three section discusses the nature and extent of the karmas. The commentary on the first five parts is known as the ''Dhavalā''. The commentary on the sixth part is known as the ''Mahādhavalā''. ''Dhavalā'' is divided into 16 sections which is as follows: * Volume One, Jivasthana - Categories of Living Beings :*Book 1 : Satprarupana (Teaching on the Entities) Part - 1 :*Book 2: Satprarupana (Teaching on the Entities) Part - 2 :*Book 3: Dravyapramananugama (Teaching on the Entities) :*Book 4: Kshetra - Sparshana - Kalanugama (Location, Touch and Time) :*Book 5: Antara - Bhava - Alpabahuttva (Gap, State, Few or Many) :*Book 6: Culika (Appendix) * Volume Two : Ksudrakabandha - Minutiae of Bondage * Volume Three : Bandhasvamittva - Ownership of Bondage * Volume Four, Vedana - Perception :*Book 1: Krtianuyogdvara (Acts as Doors of Disquisition) :* Book 2: Vedana Kshetra - Vedana Kala - Vedana Dravya (Area, Time and Object of Perception) :*Book 3: Vedana Kshetra - Vedana Kala (Area and Time of Perception) :*Book 4: Vedana Bhava Vidhana (Directive on State of Perception) * Volume Five Vargana - Divisions of Karma :*Book 1: Sparshakarmaprakrti Anuyoga (Examination of the Nature of Karmic Sensation) :*Book 2: Bandhana Anuyoga (Examination of Bondage) :*Book 3: Nibandhanadi Chatura Anuyoga (Four-part Examination of the Fastening of Karmas) :*Book 4: Moksadi Chaturdasha Anuyoga (Fourteen-part Examination of Liberation, etc.) ''Mahādhavalā'' the commentary on sixth section called Mahabandha has seven books. The other ''Digambara āgama'', the ''Kasāyapāhuda'', also has a voluminous commentary. It is called the ''Jaya Dhavalā''. All three commentaries were composed by ācārya Virasena and ācārya Jinasena (8th century CE). The text and its commentaries preserved on the palm leaf manuscripts run into some 120,000 verses. One interesting fact about the ''Satkhandāgama'' is that it is believed that the 5 pada '' Namokāra Mantra'' is believed to have been composed by ācārya Pushpadanta as the ''mangalacarana'' (opening verse, often an invocation to god for the successful completion of the text) to the ''Satkhandāgama''. Before this work, only the 2 ''pada Namokāra Mantra'' has been found in inscriptions. Hence, there is reason to believe that ācārya Pushpadanta was the first person to compose the 5 ''pada Namokāra Mantra''. The ''Satkhandāgama'' is a highly complex work, adumbrating the ''Jaina karma siddhānta''. Although it is a ''Digambara'' work, it is seen as an authoritative work on the Jaina karma theory by all Jains.

Hindi and English translations

The first five parts of the Satkhandāgama along with the Dhavalā commentary and Hindi translation, running into 16 Volumes, was first published from

Vidisha Vidisha (विदिशा, formerly known as Bhelsa and known as Besnagar in ancient times) is a city in central Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located 62.5 km northeast of the state capital, Bhopal. The name "Vidisha" is derived from th ...

itself, by the family of Shrimant Seth Sitabray Gulabray. But is now published by the Jaina Sanskriti Sanrakshak Sangh in Solapur and distributed by

Hindi Granth Karyalay Hindi Granth Karyalay is an Indian publishing house and specialized book store dealing in books pertaining to Jainology and Indology in English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsha. It was established in Mumbai, India in 1912 by its founder ...

, Mumbai. The Mahādhavalā commentary and Hindi translation, running into 7 Volumes, is published from New Delhi by Bharatiya Jñanapitha. The Kasāyapāhuda along with the JayaDhavalā commentary and Hindi translation, running into 16 Volumes, is published by Jaina Sangha, Mathura and distributed by Hindi Granth Karyalay, Mumbai. Popular English Translations are :- Satkhandagama : Dhavala (Jivasthana) Satparupana-I (Enunciation of Existence-I) An English Translation of Part 1 of the Dhavala Commentary on the Satkhandagama of Acarya Pushpadanta & Bhutabali Dhavala commentary by Acarya Virasena English tr. by Prof. Nandlal Jain, Ed. by Prof. Ashok Jain, ,

Notes

References

* * * * * * * {{Jainism topics Jain texts Agamas