Scriptural Loss as Destiny or the Jain Śrutaskhandha

Abstract

Jain canonical history is one of loss, memory, and regret. Both the Digambara and
Śvetāmbara sects agree that knowledge of the fourteen Pūrvas (the ancient texts) became
tenuous at an early date. They also share the belief that the knowledge of the Pūrvas was
retained in the twelfth aṅ ga or limb text in a subsection called the Dṛ ṣṭ ivāda. Eventually,
both communities acknowledged that the Pūrvas were lost along with the Dṛ ṣṭ ivāda,
fulfilling the last Tīrthaṅ kara Mahāvira’s prophesy that they would disappear. Then the
Digambara Jains did something that religious traditions do not typically do; they disavowed
the remaining scriptures, which would become the basis of Śvetāmbara corpus, as
corrupt. Inscribed on temple walls or as carved metal images, Digambaras routinely began
to worship stylized images of trees that depict these lost scriptures. Digambara poets like
Jinasena II further began to include descriptions of the skrutaskanda in their texts
(Ādipurāṇ a, 1.18). This paper explores such Digambara memorializations in image and in
text as practices of commemoration of lost texts destined to be lost. In so doing, I forward
the argument that scriptural loss as destiny becomes a defining feature of Digambara
identity.