Philosophy In Jain Agams: Author of Āgamas

Jain tradition believes āgama to be pauruṣeya (i.e. composed by a person) Mimānsakas believe Veda to be apauruṣeya (i.e. not authored by human). Jain belief is radically different. It believes that, there can be no text that is without any author or compiler. Texts without any author can never be accepted as the authentic. All texts definitely have authors.

In Jain culture, tīrthankara is the supreme authentic source of knowledge. Each word spoken by tīrthankara is self-validated i.e. valid cognition in itself. At present all the available Jain āgamas in their entirety are connected with the tīrthankara from the view point of its contents. The meanings were preached by the tīrthankara which were subsequently compiled by gaṇadharas and other Acharyas.

The actual contents of āgamas are preached by the tīrthankara and then gaṇadharas compiled them for the benefit of the whole community.^[1] Gaṇadharas composed only dvādaśāṅgī. Aṅgabāhya literature is the composition  of  sthaviras  (elderly  ascetics).^[2] Their  writings are independent but extracted from the āgamas of Gaṇadhara.^[3] Sthaviras are two types:

1. Caturdaśapūrvī (Proficient of fourteen pūrvas)
2. Daśapūrvī (Proficient of ten pūrvas)

These sthaviras always keep the tīrthankaras preaching as the basis of their preaching and writing. Hence, there is no possibility of contradiction from dvādaśāṅgī in their writings. So, the Jain tradition accepts them as the author of āgamas. Pratyeka Buddha have compiled āgamas.

The authenticity of āgamas compiled by pratyeka Buddha (the ascetic who gets initiated after becoming enlightened on account of some external cause) is accepted in the Jain tradition. A discussion on this subject would be undertaken later. Āvaśyaka Niryukti mentions that ascending the ladder of penances, yoga and knowledge, tīrthankaras communicate that knowledge to other beings to enlighten them. Those seeds of knowledge are received by the highly intellectual gaṇadharas (chief disciples) who compiled them beautifully in such a way that the listeners can apprehend those pearls of wisdom without any difficulty. This clarifies the fact that the authorship of Jain āgamas is limited to Tīrthankara, Gaṇadhara and Sthaviras only.^[4]