Philosophy In Jain Agams: Structure and Contents

Ācārāṅga is the first and foremost text among the aṅga literature. It is divided in two Śrutaskandhas (broad sections), twenty five chapters, eighty five sub topics, eighty five sub-sections of sub topics, eighteen thousand padas (verses), numerable letters, infinite meanings and infinite modes.^[1]

This text deals specifically with the purity in the codes of conduct of a Jain ascetic such as the system of begging alms, humility and respect towards all, stay, journey, movement, activity, speech, self-control, sleep, utensils and other usable things, food and drinks, purity in receiving food, vows, penance and other such matters related to the life of a monk. The rules which make an ascetic life blissful are also discussed in this text.^[2] Nandī also enumerates similar content.^[3]

Samavāyāṅga and Nandī describe the contents of Ācārāṅga in more or less similar way, but they do have some special elaborations on the subjects, Ācārāṅga mentions about the speech but Nandī mentions about the language, non-language, education and several other related topics. Nandī has used the terms like caraṇa-karaṇa (conduct) in the text which is elaborately discussed in Samavāyāṅga. Thus, the statements regarding the contents of both the texts stand complementary to each other. Samavāyāṅga states that Ācārāṅga has two śrutaskandha (a collection of chapters). This proves that the explanation of dvādaśāṅgī found in Samavāyāṅga also is posterior to the composition of Ayāracūlā.

In the beginning, there was no division of Ācārāṅga in two śrutaskandhas. Acharya Bhadrabahu composed the Ayāracūla which has been taken as the second śrutaskandha of Ācārāṅga whilst the previous Ācārāṅga has been considered as the first śrutaskandha. Primarily, the name of first aṅga was Ācārāṅga or Brahmacaryādhyayana. In Samavāyāṅga the chapters of Ācārāṅga are unitarily called as i.e. nava brahmacarya. Ācārāṅga Niryukti calls it by the name 'nava brahmacaryādhyayanātmaka'. The second śrutaskandha has two names-Ācārāṅga and Ayāracūla. There are two names of second śrutaskandha -Acālarāgra and Acārācūla. First śrutaskandha is ancient and the original version which is considered to be the actual first aṅga referred to as Ācārāṅga.