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Jain Canon Studies examines the scriptural corpus of Jainism, believed to preserve the teachings of the Tīrthaṅkaras, especially Mahāvīra. The early tradition was oral, with the first attempts at codification occurring after Mahāvīra's nirvāṇa. The Śvetāmbara tradition holds that the Council of Pāṭaliputra (c. 300 BCE) compiled the original canon, while the Digambara tradition maintains that the authentic scriptures were lost and their canon consists of later authoritative works. This fundamental divergence shapes the entire field.
The Śvetāmbara canon comprises 45 Āgamas (or 32 in some reckonings), divided into Aṅgas, Upāṅgas, Chedasūtras, Mūlasūtras, and Prakīrṇakas. Key texts include the Ācārāṅga Sūtra, Sūtrakṛtāṅga, and Kalpa Sūtra. The Valabhi Council (c. 5th century CE) finalized the written canon. A rich commentarial tradition followed, including Niryuktis, Bhāṣyas, and Cūrṇis, and later Sanskrit commentaries by scholars such as Haribhadra and Śīlāṅka. These commentaries often reflect distinct interpretive schools within Śvetāmbara tradition.
The Digambara canon rejects the Śvetāmbara Āgamas as authentic. Instead, it relies on the Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama (six parts) and the Kaṣāya Pāhuda, attributed to Puṣpadanta and Bhūtabali, and later works like Kundakunda's Samayasāra and Pravacanasāra. Umāsvāti's Tattvārtha Sūtra serves as a foundational text for both sects but is interpreted differently. The Digambara tradition distinguishes between the lost original canon and the post-canonical authoritative texts, with Ācāryas like Kundakunda and Umāsvāti shaping its doctrinal framework.
Later sectarian developments introduced further textual emphases. Within Śvetāmbara Jainism, the Sthānakavāsī and Terāpanthī movements rejected image worship and developed their own scriptural priorities, often focusing on the Mūlasūtras. The modern scholarly category of Āgamic Jainism emerged to study the Śvetāmbara canon systematically. Colonial-era scholarship, including the work of Hermann Jacobi and others, led to critical editions and the rise of Jain studies in academia, bringing philological and historical methods to bear on the canon.
Contemporary Jain Canon Studies remains divided along sectarian lines but also includes comparative and interdisciplinary approaches. Debates continue over the authenticity, dating, and relationship between the Śvetāmbara and Digambara canons. The field's frameworks—Śvetāmbara Āgamic tradition, Digambara post-canonical authority, and modern critical scholarship—provide the major lenses through which the Jain scriptural heritage is understood and interpreted.