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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s12: Jaina Teachings

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s12

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Jaina Teachings

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Mahāvīra is known as *Nāthaputta* (the son of the Nāthas or Jnātris of Kundanagara near Vaisāli) in the Śākyan *Majjhima Nikāya*.²

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² K. P. Jain: "Mahāvīra and Buddha" in *Buddhistic Studies* (1931) pp. 126-127.

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The Jaina tradition represents Gosāla as a disciple of Mahāvīra. But a modern view³ seeks to show that Gosāla was one of the teachers of Mahāvīra. It is also believed that among the precursors or contemporaries of Mahāvīra and Śākya the Buddha some of the formative forces of Jainism and Buddhism are to be found not only in the philosophy of Gosāla but also in the scepticism of Sanjaya. Non-Śākyan thought was then a powerful factor of the times.

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³ B. M. Barua: *History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy* (Calcutta 1921), pp. 381-382, 402. The history of Gosāla as given in the *Bhagavati*, *Saya* XV, *Udesa* I. can be seen in Engl. transl. (by A.F.R. Hoernle) in *The Uvasagadasao* or the Religious Profession of an Uvasaga (Bibliotheca Indica Series, Calcutta 1888).

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Śākya the Buddha is even alleged to have lived the life of a Jaina *muṇi* (ascetic) at a preparatory stage of his spiritual career. Nay, there is a tradition that Śākya was actually ordained as Muṇi Buddhakīrti by the Jaina saint Pihitaśrava.⁴

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⁴ Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* Pt. 1. pp. 39-41 (S.B.E.), K. P. Jain: "Mahāvīra and Buddha" in *Buddhistic Studies* (1931) pp. 118, 125, 130.

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The relations between the two, although separate from and independent of each other, were very close.⁵

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⁵ P. V. Bapat: "A comparative study of a few Jain Ardhamāgadhī texts with the texts of the Buddhist Pali Canon" in the *Sir Ashutosh Memorial Volume* (Patna 1926-28).

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The title *Tathāgata* was accorded to Śākya the Buddha as well as to Mahāvīra.

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The coincidences and affinities are so great that Weber used to consider the Jainas to be merely one of the oldest sects of Buddhism. In *Indische Alterthums-* *kunde* Lassen observed that the Jainas had but branched off from the Buddhists.⁶

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⁶ Weber's *Sacred Literature of the Jains* transl. by H. W. Smith for the *Indian Antiquary* (Bombay) October 1888, p. 290; H. Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* in the Sacred Books of the East Series, Part I. *The Akaranga Sutra and The Kalpa Sutra* (Oxford 1884), pp. xviii, xix.

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The similarity between the Jaina and the Brāhmaṇic disciplines was most profound. And Jaina tradition was not less lengthy than the Buddhist.

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The first *chakravartti* or world-ruler of the world according to the Jainas is Bharata⁷ and he was the son of Ṛiṣabha the promulgator or first *Tīrthaṃkara* of Jainism. There were 23 *Tīrthaṃkaras* previous to Mahāvīra, whose immediate predecessor was Pārśva, the twenty-third after Ṛiṣabha.

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⁷ J. Charpentier: "The History of the Jains" in the *Cambridge History of India* Vol. I. (1922), pp. 153, 165, 169 Jacobi: *The Jaina Sutras* in the *Sacred Books of the East Series*, Vol. XXI, p. xxii.

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Pārśva is said to have flourished 250 years before Mahāvīra, the "reformer" of Jainism and the last *Tīrthaṃkara*.⁸

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⁸ For the lives of Mahāvīra, Pārśva and Ṛiṣabha as given in the *Kalpasūtra* see Jacobi's transl. in the Sacred Books of the East Series Vol. XXII. *Gaina Sūtras* Part I. (Oxford 1884).

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Sambhūtavijaya, one of the priests of the Jaina organization, is said to have died in the year of Chandragupta Maurya's accession to the throne. And his contemporary was the priest Bhadravāhu, the author of the first biography of Mahāvīra. Sambhūtavijaya and Bhadravāhu were thus living in the age which saw the compilation of certain parts of the Śākyan *Piṭaka*.

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It was about the same time that the Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras of the Jaina system may have been separated (300 B.C.).

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From the standpoint of Mahāvīra also the extent of the “pluralistic universe” around him was quite vast.

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In the first place, Mahāvīra (c. B.C. 540-468) had two powerful rivals, Sākya the Buddha (c. B.C. 560-480), and the not so well known Gosāla (c. B.C. 484).⁹

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⁹ See the discussion of dates in the *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I. (1922), pp. 156, 163, Jacobi: *Kalpasūtra* in *Gaina Sūtras* Part I, pp. 8-10 (S.B.E.).

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Secondly, eight classes of “pure metaphysicians” (*akriyāvādins* or non-actionists) are mentioned in the *Sthānaṁga*(IV, 4) of Mahāvīra, as follows¹⁰ :

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¹⁰ Schrader: *Über den Stand der indischen Philosophie zur zeit Mahāvīras und Buddhas* (Strassburg 1902, pp. 545-7) in Barua: *History of Pre-Buddhist Indian Philosophy* (Calcutta 1921), p. 197.

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1. *Ekkavādins* (monists, theists, monotheists)
2. *Anikkavādins* (pluralists)
3. *Mitavādins* (extensionists)
4. *Nimittavādins* (cosmogonists)
5. *Sayavādins* (sensualists)
6. *Samuchchhedavādins* (annihilationists)
7. *Niyavādīns* (eternalists)
8. *Na-santiparalokavādins* (materialists)

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These were all opposed to Mahāvīra’s *kriyāvāda* or doctrine of action.

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The diverse doctrines of the times constitute, among other things, the topics of the Jaina *Sūtra Kritāṁga* Book I. i. II, i.¹¹

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¹¹ For English transl. by Jacobi see the Sacred Books of the East Vol. XLV, *Gaina Sūtras* Part II. (Oxford 1895), pp. 235-248, 339-347.

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The oldest parts of the Jaina texts were composed somewhere between the Pali texts (e.g. the *Dhamma-pada*) and the Sanskrit Buddhist text *Lalitavistara*.¹²

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¹² Jacobi: *Gaina Sutras* (S.B.E.) Part I. pp. x, lii, xliii.

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The origin of the Jaina literature may be placed somewhere about 300 B.C.

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Some of the more important *Sūtras* are mentioned below:¹³
1. *Ākārāṁga Sūtra*,
2. *Kalpa Sūtra*,
3. *Uttarādhyayana*,
4. *Sūtra Kritāṁga*.

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¹³ Jacobi: *Gaina Sūtras* (S.B.E.) Part I. (1884) p. xxxviii, Part II. (1895) p. xl.

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All these were written down in book form under the editorship of Devardhi about 454 A.C.

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The systems which are described as heretical in both Śākyan and Jaina texts had considerable influence in shaping the thoughts and activities of Śākya and Mahāvīra.¹⁴

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¹⁴ Jacobi: *Gaina Sūtras* Part II. in the S.B.E. Vol. XLV. (Oxford 1895), p. xxvii.

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While Sanjaya, Gosāla,¹⁵ Mahāvīra and Śākya were representing Indian culture from four conflicting and somewhat anti-traditional, say, anti-Vedic or anti-Brāhmaṇa standpoints the Vedic or Brāhmaṇic tradition was being maintained as much by the professors of the *Upaniṣads* as by the upholders of the *trivarga* (three desirables).

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¹⁵ For the position of Gośāla in the intellectual *milieu* of Śākya and Mahāvīra see the *Sūtra-Kritāṅga* Book I. Lecture 1, ch. 3, and Book II, Lecture 6 in the S.B.E. Vol. XLV. (1895). See also Jacobi's introduction pp. xxix-xxxii.

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As a category, the doctrine of *trivarga*¹⁶ or three desirables, i.e. the complex of *dharma* (duty), *artha* (interest and utility) and *kāma* (enjoyment of pleasure)

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¹⁶ Winternitz, *Geschichte III* (1921), p. 505; Keith: *History of Sanskrit Literature* (1928) p. 450.

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is at least as old as the *Grihyasūtra* (II, 19, 6) of Hiraṇyakeśin, and Patanjali's *Mahābhāṣya* (Pāṇini 2, 2, 34 *Vārttika* 9, c. B.C. 200). It is to be found of course in the *Mahābhārata* (I. 2. 38) which describes itself as an *Arthaśāstra*, *Dharmaśāstra* and a *Kāmaśāstra* in one.

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