In the Jain understanding, the teachings of Mahavira, the twenty‑fourth Tirthankara, are preserved above all in the body of scripture known as the Āgamas. These are regarded as stemming from the Jina‑vāni, the living word of the Jina, systematized by Mahavira’s immediate disciples. Within this canon, the Aṅgas form the primary core: traditionally twelve in number, with eleven surviving and the twelfth, *Drishtivāda*, remembered as lost. Among these, texts such as the *Ācārāṅga Sūtra* and *Sūtrakṛtāṅga* are especially revered for their detailed treatment of conduct, doctrine, and the early life and teachings of Mahavira.

Surrounding the Aṅgas is a structured constellation of subsidiary scriptures. The Upāṅgas elaborate on the themes of the Aṅgas, while the Prakīrṇakas (or Prakirṇakas) present miscellaneous but important doctrinal and practical topics. The Chedasūtras focus on monastic discipline and rules of conduct, and the Mūlasūtras serve as foundational texts for novices entering the ascetic path. In some traditional classifications, additional introductory or ancillary works are also recognized, all together forming a layered scriptural universe that orients the practitioner toward right knowledge, right faith, and right conduct.

Over time, further works came to be regarded as authoritative expositions of the same truth that Mahavira taught. The *Kalpa Sūtra* is notable for its biographical accounts of the Tirthankaras, including an influential narrative of Mahavira’s life. The *Tattvārtha Sūtra*, attributed to Ācārya Umāsvāti (Umāsvāmi), offers a systematic, aphoristic presentation of Jain metaphysics, cosmology, and the path of liberation, and holds a special place as a shared doctrinal touchstone. In addition, texts such as the *Ṣaṭkhaṇḍāgama* and *Kāśāyapāhuda* are central in the Digambara tradition as profound analyses of doctrine and the workings of passion and karma.

Different Jain communities remember the fate of the earliest scriptures in distinct ways. Śvetāmbara Jains affirm the preservation of a canon of Āgamas in Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit, while Digambara Jains maintain that the original Aṅgas were ultimately lost and therefore look especially to post‑canonical works and philosophical treatises as their scriptural anchors. Yet across these variations, there is a shared conviction that all such texts are attempts to articulate, in human language, the same liberating insight that Mahavira realized and taught. To engage these scriptures is thus not merely to study a literature, but to enter into a disciplined dialogue with a tradition that continually points back to the possibility of spiritual freedom.