Philosophy In Jain Agams: Aṅga Praviṣṭa and Aṅgabāhya

It is well known that in the life time of Lord Mahavira, Gautam and other Gaṇadharas compiled the pūrva and aṅga literature. A question here arises whether Mahavira's disciples, other than Gaṇadharas, had composed or compiled any text or not? There were fourteen thousand monks i.e. male ascetics in the order of Lord Mahavira.^[1] Among them many monks were omniscients, mind-readers, clairvoyants, scholars and debaters. So it is highly probable that they would have also composed texts. Nandī mentions about fourteen thousand Prakīrṇakas (texts written by his disciples) of Lord Mahavira,^[2] which were in addition to the pūrvas and aṅgas.

This classification was already mentioned in Nandī and is done on the basis of the preacher.^[3] The original preaching of Lord Mahavira compiled by gaṇadharas are called as aṅga and by other than them are called as aṅgabāhya i.e. upāṅga. Omniscient tīrthankaras preached the truth and his highly scholastic disciples received those teachings and compiled them into texts which are called as aṅgapraviṣṭa. Later, acharyas, who were proficient in these texts and possessed pure and flawless knowledge of them, composed texts based on the primary canonical texts with an aim to make it easily understandable for the disciples and also for the coming generations with gradually reduced mental, physical capabilities and learning power. Those texts were called aṅga bāhya.^[4]

Jinabhadragaṇi Kshamaśramaṇa has put forward three reasons behind this classification of āgamas-
Aṅgapraviṣṭa is that:

1. Which is compiled by Gaṇadharas
2. What is propounded by a Tīrthaṅkara in response to a Gaṇadhara's questions
3. Related to the eternal truths and is always relevant.

Contrary to this, aṅgabāhya is that which is

1. Composed by Sthaviras (well-versed acharyas)
2. Extempore discourse of Tīrthaṅkaras without being asked any question.
3. Content of which is not eternal but temporal.^[5]

Acharya Akalanka considered those texts under the aṅgabāhya category which have been composed by the Acharyas and the contents of which are in coherence with the main canonical contents, ^[6] like the subsidiary limbs of personified śruta-puruṣa.

So, the main criterion distinguishing between the aṅgabāhya and aṅgapraviṣṭa is based on the difference in their authorship or propounders.

Āgamas are foundational texts of Jain philosophy. Thus a very brief introduction of those is presented here. Ācārāṅga, Sūtrakṛtāṅga, Sthānāṅga, Samavāyāṅga and Bhagavatī, which are the basis of this research work are proposed to be discussed in detail. Other texts have been briefly introduced in relation to the context.