Shvetambara tradition holds that after a twelve-year famine the monks who had remained at Pataliputra under Sthulabhadra gathered to recover the canon from memory, assembling eleven of the twelve Angas; the twelfth was lost. Digambara accounts tell instead of Bhadrabahu leading a migration south during the famine and hold that the ancient canon perished entire. The divided memory of this council stands at the root of the two traditions.
Tagged: Councils Digambara Jain Shvetambara
The Event
- Date
- c. 300 BCE (traditional)
- Also called
- the Pataliputra recitation
- Era
- Councils and Schism; Standard periodization of Jain history
- Location
- Pataliputra; today Patna, Bihar, India
- Traditions
- Jainism
- Streams
- Shvetambara, Digambara
- Key figures
- Sthulabhadra, Bhadrabahu
- Key texts
- Angas
How the Tradition Tells It
The two traditions remember this council incompatibly. Shvetambaras hold that the Pataliputra gathering recovered eleven Angas from memory. Digambaras hold that the canon was lost entire and that no such recovery happened, and the migration of Bhadrabahu to the south, which they treasure, Shvetambara accounts do not carry. Neither memory concedes the other's.
Primary Sources
- The Kalpa Sutra account of the Tirthankaras.
- The Agamas of the Shvetambara canon.
Secondary Sources
- Dundas, Paul. The Jains. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2002.
- Wiley, Kristi L. Historical Dictionary of Jainism. Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Provenance: HIST-0603; confidence 0.8; accessed 2026-10-27.
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