The Sthānāṅgasūtra: An Encyclopaedic Text of the Śvetāmbara Canon
Every text which was included into the canon of the Śvetāmbara Jainas during the council at Valabhī in the fifth century AD deserves our attention. The contents of the Sthānāṅga, which comprises 783 sūtras, are distributed over ten chapters. Not only all the main subjects of the Jaina religion in it...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2006
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| In: |
International Journal of Jaina Studies
Year: 2006, Volume: 2, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-13 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Every text which was included into the canon of the Śvetāmbara Jainas during the council at Valabhī in the fifth century AD deserves our attention. The contents of the Sthānāṅga, which comprises 783 sūtras, are distributed over ten chapters. Not only all the main subjects of the Jaina religion in its broader sense are listed, but also many other aspects of the Jaina conception of the world are mentioned. Therefore it is a work of extreme heterogeneity. All topics are subsumed under numbers one to ten, depending on how often they occur in the world. For example: “activity” (kriyā) is given in the first chapter, i. e. under number one. We can find the same term again under number two in the second chapter, because “activity” can refer both to the soul and to the body. Again, kriyā could be of mental, vocal or physical kind, so it goes also with number three. In chapter four we learn that kriyā might be caused by violence, possession, deceit or indiscipline, and so on. Points of discussion are the origin of the Sthānāṅga, its authorship, the earliest commentary on it (composed by Abhayadevasūri in 1120 VS), the underlying motive of its compilation, and its idea and intellectual structure, which are of particular importance for our understanding of the work. As a kind of lexicon to the entire Jaina Āgama, the Sthānāṅga was part of the curriculum of the monks. And without profound knowledge of this text, the attainment of the position of an ācārya was impossible. |
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| ISSN: | 1748-1074 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International Journal of Jaina Studies
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