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An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c8.s3: iii. Jainism.

An Outline of the Religious Literature of India c8.s3

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English

iii. Jainism.

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§ 131. The history of Jainism remains extremley obscure throughout this period, yet a few facts of large importance can be discerned.

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During the two centuries before our era, and probably in still earlier years, the religion expanded steadily both in the north and in the south. Sculptured remains and an inscription found at Muttra, the ancient Mathurā, and assigned to the first century B.C.,¹ reveal to us the growth of Jainism to the north-west; caves with fragments of sculptured frieze in Orissa may date from about the same time;² while the powerful influence which Jainism exerted on Tamil literature from the second century after Christ, if not from an earlier date, shows that the religion had achieved considerable success in the far south. From the Christian era onwards, if not earlier, Jainism spread into Gujarāt; and from the third century the community produced a large popular literature in the vernacular of that part of India.

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¹ V. Smith, *HFA.* 82; 144; Indraji, *VIth Oriental Congress*, 143.

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² V. Smith, *HFA.* 84.

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§ 132. As a result of the long-standing difference of opinion within the community, the Jains at last broke into two sects, Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras, about A.D. 80³; so that for the full understanding of the history it is necessary as far as possible to distinguish the writers, books, and practices of the two organizations from this time onward. The main difference between them is the single point, that the Śvetāmbaras hold that monks ought to wear white garments, while Digambaras hold that they ought to give up all clothing. Necessarily nuns are found only among the Śvetāmbaras. The Digambaras explain that women cannot win release until a good life has brought them the privilege of being born as men; so that they need not become ascetics. There are other minor divergences. The great mass of Jains to the north of the Vindhyas were Śvetāmbaras, while in the Kanarese and Tamil districts they were nearly all Digambaras.

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³ Jacobi, *ERE.* VII. 473.

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§ 133. Jain worship is precisely parallel to Buddhist worship during these centuries. They use stūpas, as the Buddhists do, and the forms of their sculpture are similar, although the art is not so good. The remains, though slight, are sufficient to show the intense religious emotions of the Jain community and the deep devotional feeling with which they thought of their Tīrthakaras.¹ The inscription at Muttra shows that Jains already used temples in the first century B. C., and at rather later dates there is evidence that they had begun to use images. These changes are very closely contemporaneous to the corresponding movements in Buddhism.

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¹ The Jains use the word Tīrthakara, precisely as the Buddhists use Buddha, for an omniscient teacher, and they have a long list of them stretching away far back from Mahāvīra, just like the list of the Previous Buddhas.

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§ 134. It is impossible to say how much of their early literature was still retained in the memories of Jain ascetics during these centuries, nor how far the formation of the Aṅgas, now preserved in the Śvetāmbara Canon, had gone. Weber believed that the gradual process of creating the present Aṅgas began in the second century A. D., but it is more probable that portions of the ancient literature have been preserved, though doubtless from the time of the Schism, about A. D. 80, a process of revision in the interest of the sect was carried out by Śvetāmbara monks. Numerous traditions refer certain of these canonical works or comments on them to writers believed to have lived during this period—to Ajjasāma, to Kālakāchārya, to Vīrabhadra—but everything is confused and obscure. As research proceeds, a measure of light will doubtless be thrown on the history.

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§ 135. In a sixteenth-century Digambara work, the Tattvārthasāradīpikā of Sakalakīrti,² it is stated that from very early times the Digambaras had a large Canon, handed down orally, but that it was gradually forgotten, until in the second century A. D. it had all been lost. A list of the books is given,³ divided into three groups, Aṅgas, Pūrvas, and Aṅgabāhyas. A large proportion of the names correspond with books of the Śvetāmbara list, but there are differences.

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² See § 440.

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³ Bhandarkar, Report, 83-4, p. 106 f; Jaini, OJ. 135.

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§ 136. There is also an obscure tradition¹ that Pushpadanta and Bhūtavalya reduced the Canon to writing in the second century A.D., but as these two are the very men who are mentioned as having been the last that knew one Aṅga orally, and with whom all knowledge of the sacred literature died, it looks as if the tradition had been invented at a late date to give the Digambaras the *kudos* of having once possessed a written canon like the Śvetāmbaras. The truth seems to be rather this, that during the time when the differences between the two sects were becoming more sharply defined, the Digambaras took so little interest in the sacred books that the Śvetāmbaras were able to manipulate them in their own interest. The Canon bears clear traces of this process of Śvetāmbara redaction. If this be the truth, we can have no difficulty in understanding why the Digambaras ‘lost’ the Canon. The traditional date for the loss, the second century A.D., just gives time for the process after the schism.

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¹ Bhandarkar, *Report*, 83-4, p. 125.

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§ 137. The vernacular of the far south, known as Tamil, developed a varied literature at a very early date, and both Buddhists and Jains took part in the movement. Some of the most famous of early Tamil works are said to be of Jain origin, but they are not distinctively Jain works but belong rather to general literature. No work holds a higher place among the classics of the South than the sacred *Kural*, a poem consisting of 2,660 short couplets, dealing with virtue, wealth, and pleasure. It forms one of a group of eighteen didactic poems, five or six of which are by Jains. There are also two romances in verse, the *Maṇimekhalai* and the *Silappadhikaram*, both noted for their simple and elegant style, which are believed to have been written by Jains.²

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² *BMCTB*. 2, 4.

Cites (2)