Philosophy In Jain Agams: Ācārāṅga

In Jain tradition, twelve aṅgas uphold a prominent place. Among them, the first aṅga is Ācārāṅga.^[1] There are two opinions on the connotation of first. According to one school of thought, it is the first text considered from the order of the theme, though considering its period of compilation, it is the twelfth.^[2] The other school of thought considers it to be first on both the counts.^[3] According to Ācārāṅga Niryukti, tīrthaṅkaras propagate 'ācāra' first and then eleven aṅgas in sequence^[4] resulting in gaṇadharas compiling them in the same sequence.^[5] Ācārāṅga deals particularly with conduct that leads to liberation, which is the soteriological essence of existence or life and that is why the Ācārāṅga is regarded as the first and the foremost aṅga.^[6] Acharya Mahapragya has regarded Ācārāṅga as the first aṅga from the viewpoint of settlement of sequence but not from the point of view of composition, since pūrvas were prior to aṅgas. Clarifying this he writes that aṅgas are derived from pūrvas and this opinion highlights the high probability of extracting and compiling Ācārāṅga first from the pūrvas and then from the other aṅgas^[7]. Niryukti holds the first place among the commentary literature on āgamas. The authenticity of this belief as stated in Niryukti is beyond doubt. Other commentary literature mentions both streams. This shows that by sequence and also by composition, Ācārāṅga is the first text of aṅga literature. Modern scholars do not consider the aṅga and pūrva as mutually dependant texts but as existing parallel to each other.^[8]  This idea forces us to rethink about the school of thought which holds that aṅgas have been derived from pūrvas.