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Tattvartha Sutra
Sutras
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A short work of about 350 aphorisms setting out the whole of Jain doctrine in systematic order, composed by Umasvati, probably between the second and fifth centuries. It is the nearest thing Jainism has to a single agreed statement of itself.
Its significance is that both orders accept it. The Digambara and Svetambara traditions disagree about the canon, about the ascetic's clothing, about whether a woman can be liberated, and about the sex of one of the twenty-four tirthankaras; they do not disagree about this book. Digambaras call the author Umasvami and Svetambaras call him Umasvati, each claims him, and each has produced its own commentarial tradition on the text. The two recensions differ in wording in a number of places, and the sects' commentaries diverge sharply on some of what the wording means, but the work itself is common ground of a kind Jainism otherwise lacks.
It opens by stating that right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation, and proceeds through the categories of soul and non-soul, the influx and binding of karma, its stopping and shedding, and liberation, in that order. The seven tattvas it is named for are those categories, and the book's method is to define each and then subdivide it exhaustively, which makes it a manual rather than a work of persuasion.
Its compression is what has kept it in use. It was written to be memorised, is recited in full by many Jains, and is the standard text through which Jain doctrine is taught in both communities. Its first sutra is the source of the formulation of the Three Jewels used throughout the tradition, and one of its later lines, on the mutual support of living beings, has been adopted as a motto of modern Jain public life.
Facts
Origins
Era of Composition Attributed Author / CompilerUmasvati (Umasvami), c. 2nd-5th c. CE; revered by both major Jain sects 2 Structure
Structure10 chapters of aphoristic sutras 3 StructureThe first Jain text in Sanskrit and the earliest systematic exposition of Jain doctrine 3 Status
Canonical StatusCanonical 1Tradition: Jainism Text
Literary Form Learn More
The One Text Both Jain Sects Accept
The Tattvartha Sutra, "the aphorisms on the meaning of reality," also called the Tattvarthadhigama Sutra, is among the most authoritative philosophical texts of Jainism, and holds a unique place as the one major scripture accepted as authoritative by both the great Jain communities, the Svetambara and the Digambara. It was composed by the monk Umasvati (called Umasvami in the Digambara tradition), probably between the second and fifth centuries CE, and it is the first systematic exposition of the whole of Jain doctrine written in Sanskrit, the language of pan-Indian philosophy, rather than in the Prakrit of the older canonical texts, a choice that helped make Jain thought intelligible in the wider Indian intellectual world.
The work is a sutra: a chain of terse, aphoristic statements, some 350 in about ten chapters, designed to be memorised and unpacked by commentary. Its very first aphorism states the framework of the entire tradition: "right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation", the "three jewels" (ratnatraya) of Jainism.
A Map of Reality and the Soul's Bondage
The Tattvartha Sutra sets out the Jain understanding of reality under its seven (or nine) fundamental categories (tattvas): the sentient soul (jiva) and the non-sentient (ajiva), the inflow of karmic matter (asrava), its bondage (bandha) to the soul, the stopping of that inflow (samvara), the shedding of accumulated karma (nirjara), and final liberation (moksha). On this scaffold it lays out the whole Jain worldview: a beginningless universe of innumerable eternal souls entangled, through their own action, with a subtle material karma that clings to and weighs down the soul, obscuring its innate infinite knowledge and bliss.
Liberation is achieved by stopping the inflow of new karma and burning off the old through ethical discipline, non-violence and austerity, until the purified soul rises to the summit of the universe in omniscient freedom. The text also expounds Jain cosmology, the classes of living beings, the ethics of the layperson and the ascetic, and the celebrated Jain teaching on the many-sidedness of reality. Its coverage is deliberately comprehensive: it is, in effect, a compact encyclopaedia of the faith.
Commentary, Canon and Standing
The Tattvartha Sutra's acceptance by both the Svetambara and Digambara traditions (which differ over the status of the old canon, over monastic nudity, and over much else), makes it a rare point of shared ground and a natural starting point for the study of Jain philosophy. Each tradition, however, reads it through its own commentaries: the Svetambaras revere a commentary (the Bhashya) traditionally ascribed to Umasvati himself, while the Digambaras rely on great commentaries such as Pujyapada's Sarvarthasiddhi and the works of Akalanka and Vidyanandi, and the two recensions differ slightly in wording and in the numbering of the aphorisms.
Over the centuries the Sutra generated an enormous exegetical literature and became the standard textbook through which Jains, monastic and lay, learned the architecture of their tradition. Modern scholars regard it as the single most convenient and authoritative summary of classical Jain doctrine, and it is often the first Jain text translated and studied outside the tradition. Within Jainism it retains the status of a foundational scripture, recited, memorised and expounded to this day.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The Tattvartha Sutra, the nearest thing Jainism has to an agreed statement of itself, is accepted scripture in this tradition alongside its own Shatkhandagama.
The Tattvartha Sutra, the nearest thing Jainism has to an agreed statement of itself, is accepted scripture in this tradition alongside its own Agamas.
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