The Sthānāṅga Sūtra, one of the key Upāṅgas in the Śvetāmbara Jain canon, crystallized into its present form during the great Vallabhi Council in western India around 454 CE. That gathering—convened under royal patronage at Vallabhi (in today’s Gujarat)—marked the first time the oral treasures of early Jain thought were committed to manuscript.

Yet the roots of its material run much deeper. According to tradition, the categories enumerated in the Sthānāṅga go back to the disciples of Mahāvīra himself (6th century BCE) and their successors, who preserved teachings in mnemonic verse across generations. Modern philological studies suggest that while its core framework may have emerged in the late centuries BCE—when Jain communities were systematizing doctrine—the text we know was progressively shaped, debated and expanded right up to the 5th century CE.

In other words, the Sthānāṅga Sūtra represents a living tradition: ancient formulas passed down by word of mouth, carrying the echoes of 2,500 years of Jain scholarship, until they were finally set in writing at Vallabhi. That council not only safeguarded these teachings against the ravages of time but also gave later generations—from Haribhadra in the 8th century to modern scholars like Hermann Jacobi—something solid to hold on to, quite literally.

So when pinning down a “historical date,” it’s fair to say that the Sthānāṅga Sūtra was formally codified around 454 CE, even though its conceptual bones were fashioned in the echoing halls of oral tradition many centuries earlier.