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Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c18: General Outlook

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c18

Language
English

General Outlook

c18.1

The Jain point of view of geography is governed by two conditions, mythological and scientific. The first category belongs to the fantastic geography of Jambudvipa which is divided into seven zones bounded by the mountain-ranges from which flow the fourteen great rivers. But it cannot be said even this section is entirely devoid of geographical knowledge as in between the fiction we catch glimpses of certain geographical knowledge which could be checked up. For instance, in the plethora of the rivers which the Jain mythological geography speaks of as flowing from the mountains Himavan, Mahāhimavan, Nisadha, etc., there are some which could be correctly identified, one such river being Sītā described as flowing from the mountain Nila, and according to the fanciful notion of the Jains is supposed to flow to the eastern ocean. The fact, however, is that this Sītā or Si-to as it is known by the Chinese is apparently the same, though apparently Sītā never meets any sea but disappears in the sands of Kashgar. While speaking of the primitive notion of the geographical factors, such as the constitution of earth, mountains, oceans, the great islands, rivers, etc., the Jains were not the only sinners, even the Purāṇas and the Buddhist sources, more than often indulge in ludicrous speculations such as those of the Jains.

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It seems that all these sources derived their information from some very remote origins which have not yet been traced. It seems that these fantastic geographical explanations were the direct outcome of man's claim to explain all and sundry though unfortunately his knowledge had not as yet developed to such an extent as to make his statements and explanations accurate from the scientific point of view.

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The absurd measurements of the sea, mountains and rivers in the Jain canons readily support our view. Apparently there was a wish of the early geographers to give the measurements at least of the rivers which they saw very often but as yet there was no means to determine their extent nor had the people yet penetrated to the sources of the majority of them. The result was that fanciful stories were told for explanation's sake and their extent was stretched beyond all expectations to thousands and thousands of yojanas.

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These primitive geographers retained certain true observations in their geographical descriptions so far as they confined themselves to the visible objects but as soon the question of the unknown came, their imagination indulged in fanciful flights.

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But this primitive geography did not last for a very long time and though it became sāstra and thus became a sort of conventional geography of the Jains for all times, there are evidences from the Jain canon itself that the geographical conception developed with time.

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This growth of geographical knowledge may be attributed to various factors, namely, the growth of trade, including both internal and external which afforded an opportunity to the traders and Jain merchants and seamen to bring the stories of the manners and customs and also certain geographical names of the countries which they visited. There is no doubt while studying this information one has to be very critical as an element of marvel permeates these travellers' tales.

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Secondly, we know from the Jain Sūtras that the country in which the Jain monks could preach was confined to Aṅga, Magadha, Kosambī, Thūṇā and Sāvatthī, or roughly speaking that tract of land which includes modern Bihar, eastern U. P., and a portion of western U. P., and therefore, it is natural that the geographical knowledge of the early Jain scriptures should be confined entirely to that area. Thus in the Bhagavatī, the Āvaśyaka cūrṇi and other scriptures we are told the names of number of towns, townlets, villages etc., mostly belonging to Aṅga-Magadha of which unfortunately there are no traces. It is, however, related in the Jain scriptures, and the tradition is very ancient and genuine, that in the time of Samprati, the grandson of Aśoka, who was a devout Jain, other parts of the country including Mahārāstra, Andhra, Saurāstra and Coorg (Kuḍukka) etc. were opened to the Jain monks for preaching and proselytizing. This fact alone increased the geographical knowledge of the Jains substantially.

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The monks themselves realised the importance of seeing and studying the various factors in the countries which they visited. Thus in the Bṛhatkalpa Bhāṣya, which may perhaps be dated to the early century of the Christian era, elaborate instructions are given to the monks who toured from year to year the various parts of the country. It is mentioned that by seeing the country the monks purify their souls and gain equanimity of mind. These regular tours taught them many languages and afforded them opportunities to examine the various republics which they visited at length. This knowledge they brought back home and utilised in instructing their pupils and followers (1·1226). Among the various requisites of a monk it was expected of him that he should be accomplished in various regional languages (ibid., 1230). In the course of their Janapada tours the attention of the monks was also engaged by such worldly factors as the various means of irrigation, the products of the various parts of the country, various trade centres and the local habits of the populace (ibid. 1239).

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Now it must be evident that there was a definite feeling in the Jain church in the early century of the Christian era to know thoroughly the parts of the countries which were under the sphere of the Jain influence. This growth of geographical knowledge may be further seen in the Cūrṇis and even the Ṭīkās where an effort to record truly and scientifically the ethnological and geographical facts is observed.

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To sum up, we have tried to collect together this motley information of the Jain scriptures at one place so that students of ancient Indian geography may not have to grope into the thick and often badly edited Jain texts. In collecting, however, this information the difficulties have been to identify most of the obscure place-names visited by Mahāvīra and his disciples and other Jain saints, kings, traders, etc as they have disappeared without leaving any trace. However, it is possible if a detailed tour of the area covered by Mahāvīra’s cārikā is made, that by the bits of information supplied by the Jain texts, one may be able to throw further light on their identifications For the present, however, whatever information was available about these place-names from the Jain canons, have been recorded.

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At several places in common with the Purāṇas there are lists of the Non-Aryan countries; Non-Aryan in this sense must be understood by those who had not come under the sphere of Jain influence. These lists are very important, though unfortunately the text is become so corrupt that nothing can be made out of majority of the geographical place-names in the names of the tribes which they hide under their corrupt texts. It would be really a great boon to indologists if some Jain scholar were to take up the scientific edition of these lists. For the present, however, one has to be content with whatever is at our disposal.

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