Tattvartha Sutra

The first Jain text composed in Sanskrit rather than Prakrit, and the only scripture accepted as authoritative by both major Jain sects, Digambara and Shvetambara, a mark of how carefully it synthesizes earlier, sect-specific canonical material into neutral, systematic form. It organizes Jain metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics into ten chapters of short aphorisms covering the categories of reality (tattvas), the types of karma, cosmology, and the path to liberation through the three jewels of right faith, knowledge, and conduct. Its opening aphorism, that right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation, functions as a thesis statement for the entire work, though Digambara and Shvetambara editions diverge in small but doctrinally significant ways in the chapters that follow, particularly on questions of women's capacity for liberation.