Dr. Samani Chaitanya Pragya
The scriptures of Lord Mahāvīra are complied in the "dvādaśāṅgīl" (the twelve canonical texts of the Inner Corpus). The fifth "aṅga" is titled as "Viāhapaṇṇatti" or Bhagavatī Sūtra.
The Scripture Bhagavatī Sūtra is an exhaustive treatise on metaphysics. It contains an elaborate comprehension of both the realities - the sentient and the non-sentient. Hence, it is unlikely that any branch of learning would have remained undiscussed, directly or indirectly, in this encyclopedic work. Such a voluminous treatise on the metaphysics is difficult to find elsewhere. It is indeed a tough job even to make a total assessment of all the topics propounded therein. The doctrine of Anekānta is applied to every metaphysical issue in the Jain philosophy in general and in Bhagavatī in particular.
In Mahāvīra's time, there were a number of schools of religious philosophy belonging to both the traditions - the śramaṇa and the Vedic. All of them used to preach their own views. Mahāvīra, however, independently expounded those subtle truths, which are not only philosophical but also scientific in nature, by him through a long course of austerity (including meditation). For instance, the theories of ṣaḍjīvanikāya, loka-aloka, pañcāstikāya, paramāṇu, tamaskāya, kṛṣarṇājī, etc., propounded by Mahāvīra and discussed in the present scripture are the indicators of independent identity of the Jain philosophy.
Samani Chaitanya Pragya
