RELIGIOUS SECTS OF THE HINDUS. 243 



dialects of the Peninsula; but every province of Hindustan can produce Jain 

 compositions, either in Sanscrit or its vernacular idiom, whilst many of 

 the books, and especially those which may be regarded as their scriptural 

 authorities, are written in the Prakrit or Mdgadhi, a dialect which, with 

 the Jains, as well as the Bauddhas, is considered to be the appropriate 

 vehicle of their sacred literature. 



The course of time, and the multiplication of writings, have probably 

 rendered it almost impossible to reduce what may be considered as the 

 sacred literature of the Jains to a regular system. They are said to 

 have a number of works entitled Siddhdntas and Agamas* which are to 

 them what the Vedas are to the Brahmanical Hindus, and this appears 

 to be the case, although the enumeration which is sometimes made of 

 them is of a loose and popular character, and scarcely reconcileable with 

 that to be derived from written authority. f 



* Hamilton enumerates eight works, as the Agamas of the Digambara sect, the Trailohya 

 Sara, the Gomatisara, Pungjiraj, Traildkya Dipika, Kshepandsara, Tribhangisara, and Shatpawar, 

 attributed to the pupils of Mahavira. He states also, that the Swetambaras have forty-five, or as. 

 some allege, eighty-four Siddhdntas, amongst which he specifies the Thanangi Sutra. Gnydnanti 

 Sutra, Sugorangi Sutra, Upasakadesa, Mahapandanna, Nandi Sutra, Rayapseni, Jirabhigam, 

 Jambudwipapannati, Surapannatti, Chandrasagarapannatti, Kalpa Sutra, Katantraoibhrama Sutra, 

 Shakti Sutra, and Sangrahani Sutra. Some of these are incorrectly named, and others inaccurate- 

 ly classed, as will be seen from what follows in the text. 



f The following Works are either in my possession or in the library of the Sanscrit College of 

 Calcutta: — Compositions descriptive of the tenets or practices of the Jain religion. Bhagavatyangam. 

 This is one of the eleven primary works, and is entitled also in Prakrit Vivdha Pannatti, in Sanscrit 

 Vivdha, or Vivudhd Prrjnapti, Instruction in the various sources of worldly pain, or in the paths 

 of virtue. It consists of lessons given to Gautama by MAHAVfuA, and is in Prakrit. It contains 

 36,000 stanzas. Bhagavtyanga Vritti, a Sanscrit Commentary on the preceding (defective.) Thd- 

 ndnga Sutra,— also one of the eleven Angus. Kalpa Sutra, the precepts of the Jain faith — 

 these are originally 1250; but they are interspersed with legends of the Tirthdnkaras, and especially 

 of MahavIka, at the pleasure of the writer, and the several copies of the work therefore differ. 

 Prakrit. 



