Philosophy In Jain Agams: Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama

Scriptural knowledge (Śrutajñāna) gradually waned after the salvation of Lord Mahavira. Digambara tradition assumes that there were no aṅga-proficient and pūrva-proficient Acharyas after 683 years of Lord Mahavira's salvation. During the last years of this waning period of āgama knowledge, four Acharyas namely Subhadra, Yashobhadra, Yashobāhya and Loharya, these four ācāryas, were proficients in complete Ācārāṅga and had partial knowledge of remaining aṅgas and pūrvas. After them Acharya Dharasena had the partial knowledge of all aṅgas and pūrvas.^[1]

Acārya Dharasena, skilled in eight sciences of prognostications, residing in the Candra gufa (cave) of Girnar, (Saurashtra), had a thought that after him the scriptural knowledge should not get lost. So he wrote a letter to the Acharyas of south province. Puṣpadanta and Bhūtabali­ came from south to meet Dharasena for study. Acharya Dharasena taught them the scriptural knowledge that he had and then these two monks composed Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama on the basis of the knowledge gained.^[2]

What name was designated to this text by Puṣpadanta and Bhūtabali, could not be inferred from their texts but author of Dhavalā described it as 'Ṣaṭkhaṇda Siddhānta'^[3] and he has also taken the word āgama and siddhānta to be synonymous.^[4]  The author of Gommaṭasāra called it by the name paramāgama and the author of Śrutāvatāra, Indranandī called it Ṣaṭkhaṇdāgama.^[5] At present, it is famous by this name. Puspadanta wrote Saṭprarūpaṇā in 177 aphorisms and Bhūtabali wrote the remaining text in 6000 verses. The subject matter of Saṭprarūpaṇā was extracted from fourth Pāhuḍa of Mahākarma Prakṛti of second pūrva 'Agrāyaṇīya’.^[6]

In this book, there are six sections as its name itself reflects, since Ṣaṭ means six and khaṇdā means sections. First section is 'Jīvaṭṭhāṇa'. In this, there is an explanation of eight gateways of investigation i.e. gateway of existence, numerical determination, field occupied, field touched, continuity, time lapse, states and relative numerical strength. There are nine cūlikās by the name Pṛakrti samutkīrtana, sthāna samutkīrtana etc. There is an explanation of ladders of the path of liberation. The author of Dhavalā counted its volume constituting 18000 padas (stanzas).^[7]

The second section is khuddābandha (Kṣhullaka bandha). It has eleven chapters by the name Svāmitva, Kāla (time), Antara, etc. In this section, the karmic bondage to the soul has been explained with eleven doorways of investigation along with the divisions of karmik bondage.

The third section is bandha-svāmitvavicaya. Subject matter such as - to whom, what kind of karmas are bound, up to how many Guṇasthānas (Stages of spiritual development) bondage takes place and other karma related topics are discussed in this section.

The fourth section (khaṇḍa) is 'vedanā'. It has two dimensions of study i.e. kṛti (action) and vedanā (suffering). Vedanā is the subject of discussion in this section and has been dealt elaborately. Hence it is called by the name vedanā khaṇḍa.

The fifth section is designated as vargaṇā. The content of discussion of this section is about Bandhanīya i.e. that which is capable to be bound. Hence twenty three kinds of vargaṇā (material aggregates or clusters) and especially karma vargaṇā are discussed at length in this section.

Sixth section is Mahābandha. In this prolong discussion about four divisions of karmic bondage i.e. nature, duration, intensity of fruition and mass of karmic matter have been discussed in detail. After the composition of 6000 verses along with the five sections composed by Puṣpadanta, Bhūtabali composed 30,000 verses as the sixth section of this text by the name Mahābandha.^[8] Independently this text is called by the name Mahādhavalā.

Virasena Acharya wrote a (Tīkā) commentary on these six sections which contained 72000 verses called as Dhavalā tīkā. Nemichandra Siddhanta Cakravarti wrote Gommaṭasāra on the basis of Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama which has two sections by the name Jīvakāṇḍa and Karmakāṇḍa.