Internal Controversy and Literary Heritage: a Discussion of Two Śvetāmbara Dharmaparīkṣā Adaptations

Abstract Sectarian strife was a prominent stimulant for textual production among Śvetāmbara mendicants of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. In this article I analyze the Dharmaparīkṣā s (Examination of Religion) by two sixteenth-century authors of different Śvetāmbara Tapā Gaccha affiliations, Saubhāgyasāgara and Padmasāgara, to argue that strategies of adaptation can contribute to internal Jain polemics and to the assertion of an exclusive Jain identity. In my analysis, I understand both adaptations as attempts to correct the earlier widely spread version by Amitagati (eleventh century), and to claim the well-known story for their respective literary corpora. Furthermore, I suggest that the controversy within the Tapā Gaccha may have inspired the writing of two different versions. Taken together, my discussion of the two Dharmaparīkṣā s will illustrate how the creation of a corpus of literary heritage can help to overcome the crisis that results from internal religious controversy.