The Akaranga Sutra, or, as it is sometimes called, the Samayika , is the first of the eleven Angas. It treats of the akara, or conduct, which falls under the last of the four heads, or anuyogas, into which the sacred lore is divided, viz. Dharmakatha, Ganita, Dravya, and Karanakarana. The Akaranga Sutra contains two books, or Srutaskandhas, very different from each other in style and in the manner in which the subject is treated. The subdivisions of the second book being called Kulas, or appendices, it follows that only the first book is really old. That it was considered so even in later times, is apparent from a remark of Silanka, who wrote the commentary, which is the oldest one extant . For speaking of the mangala or auspicious sentence which, according to a current theory, must occur at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of each work, Silanka points out as such the first sentence of the first lesson of the first lecture, the first sentence of the fifth lesson of the fifth lecture, and the latter half of the 16th verse in the fourth lesson of the eighth lecture of the first book. It is evident that he regarded the Akaranga Sutra as ending with the last-named passage, which is the last but one of the first book.

The first book, then, is the oldest part of the Akaranga Sutra; it is probably the old Akaranga Sutra itself to which other treatises have been added. For it is complete in