A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s2.95

v2.c20.s2.95

The seventh Aṅga, Uvāsagadasāo,² *i.e.*, "the ten (chapters on the duties) of the lay adherent" also contains narratives for the most part. Legends are told of ten pious householders, most of whom are wealthy merchants, who impose on themselves certain forms of self-denial, take the vows enumerated by Mahāvīra, and become pious lay adherents. By dint of their asceticism they actually attain to miraculous powers while they are still lay adherents: finally they die a voluntary death by starvation as genuine Jaina saints, and are reborn as gods in the heaven of the pious. Just as in the Purāṇas and the Buddhist Mahāyāna-Sūtras, ten stories of this kind are included in one and the same frame, being told by the venerable, Suhamma to Jambu. The legends are all told after a stereotyped pattern in the most monotonous manner imaginable, so much so that in the later stories there is often only a catchword given by way of allusion to the earlier stories. The part that has the greatest claim upon our interest, is Chapter VII, in which the story is told of the wealthy potter Saddālaputta, who had been an adherent of Gosāla Mankhaliputta, but seceded from him and went over to Mahāvīra. The description of how Mahāvīra convinces the potter of the truth of his doctrine, is in places reminiscent of the best Buddhist dialogues. It is obvious, however, that the whole work was only compiled for devotional purposes.³