Within the Jain tradition, the Acharanga Sutra is not treated as the work of a single, individual “author” in the modern literary sense. It is regarded as a canonical Agama text that preserves the direct teachings of Mahavira, transmitted through his immediate disciples and the early monastic community. This understanding reflects a broader Jain view that such scriptures are manifestations of Shrut Jnana, the heard knowledge of the Tirthankaras, rather than the creative product of one human mind. As a result, the text is seen more as a carefully preserved vessel of Mahavira’s instructions than as a composition bearing a personal signature.

From a historical perspective, the Acharanga Sutra appears to have taken shape over several centuries. Scholars generally place the earliest layers of the text around the 5th or 6th century BCE, close to the time of Mahavira, with additional material being incorporated up to about the 2nd century BCE. This gradual formation mirrors the living, oral character of the early Jain community, in which teachings were memorized, recited, and systematized as the monastic order grew. The text thus stands at the threshold between oral tradition and written scripture, embodying both the immediacy of spoken instruction and the emerging need for stable, codified monastic rules.

For a long period, these teachings were preserved solely through oral transmission, entrusted to disciplined lines of monks who specialized in memorizing and reciting them. Only after centuries of such custodianship were they committed to writing in a more definitive form. Traditional accounts associate this fixing of the canon, including the Acharanga Sutra, with the Council of Valabhi, which is remembered as the moment when the fragile thread of memory was reinforced by script. In this way, the text reflects both continuity and change: continuity in its claim to preserve Mahavira’s voice, and change in the evolving forms through which that voice has been safeguarded.