which is
not accepted by the Digambaras. In this canon the highest rank is given
to eleven works[279] called Angas or limbs of the law but it also
comprises many other esteemed treatises such as the Kalpasutra ascribed
to Bhadrabahu. Fourteen older books called Puvvas (Sk. Purvas) and now
lost are said to have together formed a twelfth anga. The language of
the canon is a variety of Prakrit[280], fairly ancient though more
modern than Pali, and remarkable for its habit of omitting or softening
consonants coming between two vowels, _e.g._ suyam for sutram, loo for
loko[281]. We cannot, however, conclude that it is the language in which
the books were composed, for it is probable that the early Jains,
rejecting Brahmanical notions of a revealed text, handed down their
religious teaching in the vernacular and allowed its grammar and
phonetics to follow the changes brought about by time. According to a
tradition which probably contains elements of truth the first collection
of sacred works was made about 200 years after Mahavira's death by a
council which sat at Pataliputra. Just about the same time came the
famine already mentioned and many Jains migrated to the south. When they
returned they found that their co-religionists had abandoned the
obligation of nakedness and they consequently refused to recognize their
sacred books. The Svetambara canon was subsequently revised and written
down by a council held at Valabhi in Gujarat in the middle of the fifth
century A.D. This is the edition which is still extant. The canon of the
Digambaras, which is less well known, is said to be chiefly in Sanskrit
and according to tradition was codified by Pushpadanta in the second
century A.D. but appears to be really posterior to the Svetambara
scriptures[282]. It is divided into four sections called Vedas and
treating respectively of history, cosmology, philosophy and rules of
life[283].

Though the books of the Jain canon contain ancient matter, yet they
seem, as compositions, considerably later than the older parts of the
Buddhist Tripitaka. They do not claim to record recent events and
teaching but are attempts at synthesis which assume that Jainism is well
known and respected. In style they offer some resemblance to the
Pitakas: there is the same inordinate love of repetition and in the more
emotional passages great similarity of tone and metaphor[284].

Besides the two canons, the Jains have a considerable literature
consisting