Scriptures & Texts
Sutrakritanga
Original Term Suyagadanga (Prakrit)
Jainism
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The Sutrakritanga (also spelled Suyagadanga in its original Prakrit) is the second of the twelve Angas, the oldest core texts of the Svetambara Jain Agama canon, and is largely devoted to refuting rival philosophical and religious positions of its day, including materialism, fatalism and various forms of non-Jain asceticism, while setting out Jain teachings on right conduct, non-violence (ahimsa) and the causes of karmic bondage. Alongside the Acaranga Sutra it is counted among the very oldest surviving Jain scriptures and is an important source for the intellectual landscape of ancient India in the centuries around the Buddha's own lifetime.
Facts
Origins
Era of CompositionAlong with the Acaranga Sutra, generally reckoned by scholars among the oldest surviving portions of the Jain canon, with a core plausibly dating to some centuries before the Common Era, though the text as it survives was compiled and edited later. 1 Identity
Parent WorkSecond of the twelve Angas of the Svetambara Jain Agama canon 1 Structure
StructureTwo books (shrutaskandhas); the first, in verse, surveys and refutes rival doctrines and teaches right conduct and the causes of karmic bondage, the second, largely in prose, continues with further doctrinal exposition and includes an account of the types of speech and conduct proper to a Jain monk. 1 Status
Canonical StatusCanonical for Svetambara Jainism, counted among the twelve Angas; not accepted as canonical by the Digambara tradition, which holds that the original Anga texts were lost. Text
Literary FormMixed verse and prose, largely polemical and doctrinal in content. Learn More
Answering Rival Teachings One By One
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Most of the oldest religious literature that survives from ancient India teaches its own tradition's positions directly, with rival views mentioned only in passing if at all. The Sutrakritanga takes a different approach almost from its opening lines: it names and works through opposing doctrines one after another, treating the text as much as a debate as a sermon.
Its targets range widely. It takes on materialists who deny that any action carries consequences beyond this one life, fatalists who hold that everything is fixed in advance and personal effort changes nothing, and various ascetic practices the text judges to be misguided attempts at liberation that overlook Jainism's own central teaching on non-violence. Against each of these the text sets out the Jain account: that souls are bound by karma accumulated through action, that violence in thought, word or deed is what does the binding most severely, and that a disciplined, non-violent life is what gradually sheds that accumulated karma and moves a soul toward liberation.
Because it engages so directly and so often with rival schools of thought, historians of Indian philosophy read the Sutrakritanga as a genuine window onto the intellectual world of its period, a landscape crowded with competing renunciant movements all arguing with each other over how the world works and what a person owes it. Alongside the Acaranga Sutra it is counted among the very oldest layers of the Jain canon, old enough that its polemics are sometimes the clearest surviving evidence for what some of those rival positions actually claimed.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Prakrit directly: "spelled Suyagadanga in its original Prakrit) is the second of the twelve Angas, the oldest core texts of the Svetambara Jain Agama canon, and is largely devoted to refuting rival philosophical and..."
This source names Svetambara directly: "Angas, the oldest core texts of the Svetambara Jain Agama canon, and is largely devoted to refuting rival philosophical and religious positions of its day, including materialism, fatalism and..."
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