The Sthanānga Sūtra comes down to us as the brainchild of Ganadhara Sudharmaswami, the foremost disciple who carried Lord Mahāvīra’s teachings forward after his nirvāṇa. Tasked with preserving the fold’s core wisdom, Sudharmaswami wove together those 132 thematic “places” (sthanas) into a systematic guide—an encyclopedia of early Jain thought.

Dating from not long after the 6th century BCE, this text isn’t just dusty lore. Modern scholars at institutions from Jaipur to London pore over its concise breakdown of logic, ethics and cosmology. Its influence still ripples through contemporary Jain education, where debates at institutes like the Jain Vidyapeeth in Rajasthan echo the very categories Sudharmaswami first outlined.

In a world now obsessed with data and categorization, the Sthanānga Sūtra feels oddly prescient: a millennia-old framework for sorting knowledge that resonates from ancient śramaṇa halls to 21st-century lecture theaters. All told, this work stands as a testament to Sudharmaswami’s vision—a carefully structured map of Jain wisdom that, even after 2,500 years, continues guiding curious minds down the path of right understanding.