Kalpa-sūtra

▪ Hindu literature

      manual of Hindu religious practice, a number of which emerged within the different schools of the Veda, the earliest sacred literature of India. Each manual explains the procedures (kalpa) of its school as it applies to three different categories: the sacrificial ritual (the Śrauta-sūtras; see Śrauta-sūtra), the domestic ritual (the Gṛhya-sūtras; see Gṛhya-sūtra), and the conduct of life (the Dharma-sūtras; see dharmashastra). They are written in the short aphoristic style of the sutra (literally “thread”) so that they could be committed easily to memory. Kalpa is one of six fields of scholarly discipline known as vedangas (“accessories to the Vedas”). As they are regarded to be of human origin, they are considered Smṛti (“tradition”) as distinct from the earlier Vedic literature, which is Śruti (“revelation”).

▪ Jainist literature

      a text held in great honour by the Śvetāmbara sect of Jainism, a religion of India. It deals with the lives of the 24 Jaina saviours, the Tīrthaṅkaras; the succession of pontiffs; and the rules for monks during the Paryuṣaṇa festival. The text records the five auspicious events (the descent from heaven, birth, initiation, obtaining of omniscience, and death) and many legends of the last three saints, Ariṣṭanemi, Pārśvanātha, and Mahāvīra, and those of Ṛṣabanātha, the first of the 24 saints. The names and details of the other saints are briefly listed. Manuscripts of the Kalpa-sūtra, housed in monastery libraries, are often profusely illustrated in the characteristic western Indian style of miniature painting. Once a year during the Paryuṣaṇa festival a Kalpa-sūtra manuscript is taken out in a procession and read by the monks before the laity. Great merit is attributed to hearing the Kalpa-sūtra.

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