Home›Open Questions›Did the lost Purvas genuinely preserve Mahavira's own teaching, as Jain tradition holds?Open QuestionsDid the lost Purvas genuinely preserve Mahavira's own teaching, as Jain tradition holds?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Did the lost Purvas genuinely preserve Mahavira's own teaching, as Jain tradition holds?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/did-the-lost-purvas-genuinely-preserve-mahaviras-own-teaching.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Did the lost Purvas genuinely preserve Mahavira's own teaching, as Jain tradition holds?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/did-the-lost-purvas-genuinely-preserve-mahaviras-own-teachingCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-did-the-lost-purvas-genuinely-preserve-m, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Did the lost Purvas genuinely preserve Mahavira's own teaching, as Jain tradition holds?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/open-questions-index/did-the-lost-purvas-genuinely-preserve-mahaviras-own-teaching}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionThe Purvas do not survive in any form. What is known of them comes entirely from later Jain canonical descriptions of their existence and content, not from the texts themselves, and no source outside the Jain tradition independently confirms either their content or that they trace to Mahavira's own teaching.What would resolve this The discovery of a surviving Purva manuscript, or an independent near-contemporary reference describing their actual content, would let the tradition's account of their origin be checked against something other than later restatement of the same tradition.OpenJain textual history and IndologyPadmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of PurificationCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnPurvas, Scriptures & Texts Well-attested Source The Jaina Path of PurificationPadmanabh S. Jainitier 1SourcesThe Jaina Path of Purificationtier 1Padmanabh S. Jaini, University of California Press, 1979View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year