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An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c10.s2: iii. Jainism.

An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c10.s2

Language
English

Contents

iii. Jainism.

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§ 251. One of the most noteworthy features of Jainism at this time is its almost complete immunity from the poison of Śāktism; and this healthy freedom is still characteristic of the religion. Goddesses are praised in hymns and represented in temples, but do not receive worship, and there is no foul ritual. The Śākta Yoga,¹ with its nāḍīs and chakras in the human frame, is accepted, but it is not very prominent.

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¹ For some account of Jain Yoga, see Bhandarkar, R. 1883-4, 110; Garbe, SY. 39; Guérinot, 469.

A. Śvetāmbara Literature.

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§ 252. Gujarāt, and especially Valabhi, remained the chief centre of Śvetāmbara activity throughout this period. The sect was now in possession of a formed canon of sacred books. It had been written and published, and copies had been placed in all the chief monasteries. The best Śvetāmbara scholars thus naturally set to work to make these precious documents intelligible to all who cared to read them. The sect also took a very worthy place in the production of popular literature in Prākṛit. A few scholars distinguished themselves in logic.

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Amongst the numerous literary men who were attracted to the court of the Emperor Harsha at Kanouj in the first half of the seventh century we find Mānatunga, a Śvetāmbara poet, who is remembered on account of his *stotras*, the *Bhaktāmarastotra* and the *Bhayaharastotra*. These *stotras* are rather sacred odes to be recited by an individual than hymns for congregational singing. Bappabhaṭṭi, who lived in the latter half of the eighth century and won for Jainism King Ama of Kanouj, the son and successor of Yaśovarman, is the author of another famous ode, the *Sarasvatīstotra*. Mallavādin (early ninth century) wrote on logic.

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Haribhadra, one of the very greatest of all Jain authors, lived in the latter half of the ninth century. He was born and brought up a Brāhman, and when he became a Jain was able to use his Brāhman culture to help the religion he had chosen. He is famous as a writer on Jain doctrine and conduct, as one of the most brilliant of commentators, and as a competent writer on logic.¹ He also did something for popular Prākṛit literature. Yet he is best known to-day for his *Shaḍdarśanasamuchchhaya*, a treatise dealing with six philosophical systems, the Buddhist, Nyāya, Sāṅkhya, Jain, Vaiśeshika, and Karma Mīmāṃsā. In case some reader should remark that the Nyāya and the Vaiśeshika are practically one, he adds a brief account of the atheistic and materialistic Lokāyata to make the number up to six. Amongst other works he composed several manuals of Jain teaching.²

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¹ Vidyābhūshaṇa, *MSIL*. 48 ff.

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² Guérinot, 71; Peterson, III. 34-5.

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Another famous Śvetāmbara scholar named Śīlāṅka was a contemporary of Haribhadra. These two, wishing to bring the study of the Jain sacred texts into the open scholarly life of India, wrote fresh commentaries on them in Sanskrit, and also translated large parts of the old expository literature into Sanskrit. Haribhadra was a little more conservative than Śīlāṅka; for here and there in translating he left stories and other well-known sections in the old Prākṛit. Of Śīlāṅka’s great body of work a good deal has been lost, but his commentaries on the *Āchārāṅga* and *Sūtrakṛtāṅga* sūtras, and a portion of his work on the *Āvaśyaka* survive. The commentary on the *Āchārāṅga* was finished in A.D. 863. Of Haribhadra’s work there remain expositions of the *Prajñāpanā*, *Jambūdvīpaprajñapti*, *Daśavaikālika*, and *Āvaśyaka*. It is noticeable that these brilliant commentators lived just a little later than Śaṅkara and Vāchaspati-miśra.

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§ 253. As we have already seen, the Jains took a worthy part in the production of popular literature in Prākṛt. Most of it is lost beyond recall, but a few masterpieces belonging to this period survive and enable us to form some idea of its range and its value. A Jain anthology, consisting of 704 epigrammatic stanzas, well worthy to stand beside Hāla’s famous *Sattasaī*, has been preserved. It is named the *Vajjālaggā*, and it was arranged by Jayavallabha. Its date is probably the eighth or ninth century. Haribhadra also wrote a book in Prākṛt, the *Samaraichchhakahā*, which consists of nine romances. As he says himself in the introduction, he wrote the book for the purpose of giving instruction in Jainism, and chose the romantic method in order to attract readers. The book proved very popular, and was later put into Sanskrit. A pupil of Haribhadra’s, Siddharshi by name, is the author of an allegorical work in Prākṛt, written in A.D. 906, the *Upamitibhavaprapañchakathā*. It is a view of human life in which the virtues and the vices figure as persons. Jacobi speaks of it as ‘a work of rare originality’ and says it is worthy of comparison with the *Pilgrim’s Progress*. The work was later abbreviated by two Jain authors.¹

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¹ Guérinot, pp. 79, 148, 155.

B. Digambara Literature.

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§ 254. The chief centre of Digambara activity throughout this period was a section of South India, corresponding to the Mysore and the southern part of the Marāṭhā country. The sect enjoyed the favour of the Chalukya kings, who ruled at Bādāmi (Vātāpi) from the middle of the sixth to the middle of the eighth century, and received much support and recognition from their successors, the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, whose capital at first was Nasik but afterwards Mānyakheṭa farther south.¹ They had also considerable influence in the Tamil country. The literature of the period is extremely rich and varied. Perhaps its most strikingly notable aspects are Jain dogmatics and ethics, legendary literature in the form of Purāṇas, and logic. It is to the Digambara Jains that we owe the rise and early growth of Kanarese literature : they used it for popular literature.

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¹ Smith, *EHI.* 427 ff.

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§ 255. Samantabhadra, who came between Umāsvāti and Kumārila, and thus probably flourished about A. D. 600, wrote the *Gandhahastimahābhāshya*, the chief Digambara commentary on Umāsvāti’s *Tattvārthādhigama-sūtra*. The introduction, called *Devāgamastotra* or *Āptamīmāmsā*, a Sanskrit poem of 115 stanzas, is regarded as the best exposition of the Jain method of dialectic, known as Syādvāda, i.e. the ‘may-be’ doctrine, and of the Jain conception of a Tīrthakara as an omniscient being. Its influence on Jain logic was very great. It contains a review of contemporary schools of philosophy, including the advaita Vedānta. He is also the author of two famous hymns of praise, and of two books on Jain conduct, one of which, the *Ratnakaraṇḍa-Śrāvakāchāra*, is much used.² Akalaṅka, a junior contemporary of Kumārila and a senior contemporary of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Kṛiṣhṇa I, probably lived about A. D. 770. His most famous works were a sacred ode, the *Akalaṅka-stotra*, and a commentary on the *Āptamīmāmsā* named *Aṣhṭaśatī*.

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² The other is *Yuktānuśāsana*.

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In addition to Samantabhadra’s famous work, five commentaries on Umāsvāti ought to be mentioned, the first called *Sarvārthasiddhi* by Pūjyapāda, *c.* A.D. 700, the second, *Tattvārthaṭīkāvyākhyālaṃkāra*, which is believed to be by Akalaṅka, the third an anonymous work named *Rājavārtika* also written in the eighth century, the fourth *Ślokavārtika* by Vidyānanda c. 800, and the fifth a Kanarese work, which seems to have perished, the *Chūḍāmaṇi* by Śrīvarddhadeva, whose date is unknown.

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To the ninth century belongs an anonymous work in Jain philosophy called *Jayadhavalā*, which finds a place in the Digambara Secondary Canon.¹ A brief catechism in Sanskrit, *Praśnottaramālā*, dealing with Jain topics, is said to have been written by Amoghavarsha I, the Rāshṭrakūṭa king who reigned from A. D. 815 to 877 and was a munificent patron of the Digambara Jains.

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¹ See § 257.

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Three famous logicians, Vidyānanda, Māṇikyanandin, and Prabhāchandra, were contemporaries, and may be dated about A. D. 800.

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§ 256. We now turn to popular poetry. Ravikīrti, who lived in the first half of the seventh century and wrote in Kanarese, is the author of the *Jinakathe*. He built a temple and inscribed on it a eulogy of Pulikeśin II, which is our chief source of information about him. He was followed by a number of poets who produced Digambara Jain Purāṇas in Sanskrit. The earliest of these was Ravisheṇa, who is the author of the *Padma Purāṇa* and probably lived in the second half of the seventh century. The *Harivaṃśa P.* was written by Jinasena in A. D. 783. During the reign of Amoghavarsha I (A. D. 815–77), who has been already mentioned, there lived Jinasena,² pupil of Vīrasena, and his disciple Guṇabhadra, the chief authors of the Digambara Purāṇas. Jinasena wrote the first forty-three chapters of the *Ādi P.* or *Trishaṣṭilakṣaṇamahāpurāṇasaṅgraha*, and is also the author of the *Pārśvābhyudaya*, an imitation of Kālidāsa’s *Meghadūta*.

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² The current identification of the authors of the *Harivaṃśa P.* and the *Ādi P.* rests on the similarity of name only, and is clearly untenable. Not only is there no mention of the *Harivaṃśa* in the Praśasti of the *Uttara P.*, where it could not have been passed over, if it had been Jinasena’s work, but the ascription of both works to the same author is chronologically almost impossible: the *Harivaṃśa* was composed in 783; Jinasena, pupil of Vīrasena, was alive in 837, the date of the *Jayadhavalāṭīkā* (*JBBRAS*. 1894, 226), and his pupil Guṇabhadra completed the *Uttara P.* not long before 898. I owe this note to Prof. Keith.

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Guṇabhadra completed the Purāṇa left unfinished by his master, and wrote the Uttara P. He is also the author of the Ātmānuśāsana.

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A detailed analysis of the Harivaṃśa P. by R. L. Mitra gives a very clear idea of the contents of Jain Purāṇas. It is an imitation of the Hindu Harivaṃśa. It contains numerous legends of the Jain Tīrthakaras, mythical histories of the ancient dynasties which we meet in the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas, and amongst them the whole story of Kṛṣṇa; but the heroes are represented as Jains and every event speaks in favour of Jainism. Laws of conduct, religious rites, and other ceremonies also bulk large.

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The chief monument of Jain literary activity during this period in Tamil is the Nālaḍiyār, an anthology of four hundred quatrains on moral and religious subjects, compiled probably in the eighth century.

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§ 257. The Digambaras, as we have seen, acknowledge that they once possessed a Canon, which has been long lost. In place of it they now recognize a sort of Secondary Canon. It might probably be better described as the framework of a Canon; for, while there are four classes of works recognized, there seems to be no fixed list of books for each, although there are a few works which always find a place in the framework. It seems probable that this Secondary Canon dates from the end of this period, for it bears the mark of the time, as will be readily recognized. We fit into the framework the books which were already in existence before the end of the period. All these are now recognized as belonging to the Canon.

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DIGAMBARA SECONDARY CANON.

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1. Prathamānuyoga (legend and history): *Padma, Harivaṃśa, Trishashṭilakshaṇamahā* and *Uttara Purāṇas*.

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2. Karaṇānuyoga (the universe): *Sūryaprajñapti, Chandraprajñapti,* and *Jayadhavalā*.

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3. Dravyānuyoga (philosophy): *Pravachanasāra, Samayasāra, Niyamasāra, Pañchatthiyasaṃgahasutta*, all by Kuṇḍakuṇḍāchārya; Umāsvāti’s *Tattvārthādhigama-sūtra* with the following commentaries, a. Samantabhadra, *Gandhahastimahābhāshya*; b. Pūjyapāda, *Sarvārthasiddhi*; c. Akalaṅka, *Tattvārthaṭikāvyākhyālaṃkāra*; d. *Rājavārtika*; e. Vidyānanda, *Ślokavārtika*; f. Śrīvardhadeva, *Chūḍāmaṇi*; and the *Āptamīmāṃsā* of Samantabhadra, with the works on dialectic and logic dependent thereon, a. Akalaṅka’s *Ashṭaśatī*; b. Vidyānanda’s *Ashṭasāhasrī*, and c. *Āptaparīkshā*; d. Māṇikyanandin’s *Parīkshāmukha*, and e. Prabhāchandra’s *Prameyakāmala-mārtaṇḍa*.

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4. Charaṇānuyoga (practice): Vaṭṭakera’s *Mūlāchāra* and *Trivarṇāchāra* and Samantabhadra’s *Ratnakaraṇḍa-śrāvakāchāra*.

Cites (37)