Revisiting the Pūrvas: Historical Memory, Canon Formation, and Doctrinal Assimilation in Jainism

This study critically re-examines the status, transmission, and eventual disappearance of the fourteen Pūrvas, considered the most ancient layer of Jain sacred literature. While traditional narratives claim these texts were entirely lost by the tenth century after Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa, a closer investigation suggests that the Pūrvas were not obliterated but rather assimilated into the evolving Jain canonical structure. Drawing upon textual references from the Āṅgas, Nandīsūtra, BhagavatīSūtra, and traditional commentaries, the paper demonstrates that the doctrinal content of the Pūrvas continued to influence later compositions such as the Kalpasūtra. It also addresses competing scholarly views on whether the Pūrvas were polemical in nature or comprised more general discourses. Ultimately, the decline of the Pūrvas appears not as a case of doctrinal amnesia but as an organic rearticulation in response to institutional and pedagogical needs. This reinterpretation underscores the adaptive resilience of Jain scholasticism and invites a reassessment of how textual traditions evolve while retaining continuity.