Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Outlines of Jainism c8: Part II. Secular Knowledge

Outlines of Jainism c8

Language
English

Contents

Part II. Secular Knowledge

c8.1

Jaina literature, even in its ruins, is very rich and varied. Professor Dr. A. Guérinot, of Paris, remarks as follows:—"Tous les genres y sont représentés: d'abord la dogmatique, la morale, la polémique, et l'apologétique; mais aussi l'histoire et la légende, l'épopée et le roman, la grammaire, la lexicographie et l'astronomie, voir le théâtre" (Essai de Bibliographie Jaina, p. xxxi).¹ The Outlines only touch in the Appendices a few out of this vast variety of topics.

c8.2

¹ Professor Jacobi in his article JAINISM (Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics) mentions in particular the numerous tales in Prākrit and Sanskrit employed to illustrate works of a dogmatical or edifying character; further, Sanskrit poems, in plain or ornate style, and Sanskrit and Prākrit hymns. "Jain authors have also contributed many works, original treatises as well as commentaries, to the scientific literature of India in its various branches—grammar, lexicography, metrics, poetics, philosophy, etc."

c8.3

The original language of the canon was a Prākrit, i.e. an early derivative of Sanskrit, spoken in Bihār: it is known as Ārsha or Ardha-Māgadhī. In the existing Śvetāmbara texts, modified by time, two dialects are distinguished, one being confined to verse; while the Digambaras employ a third. The early commentaries were in Prākrit. Sanskrit, first employed by the Digambaras, has been predominant since about 1000 A.D., although the Prākrit has continued in use. Of modern dialects the Mārwārī, a special form of Hindī, and Gujarātī are preferred.—F. W. T.

Jaina History and Chronology

c8.s1.1.1

Time is infinite; but there are in it æons (*kalpas*) or cycles. Each æon has two eras: the *avasarpiṇī*, or descending era, in which piety and truth, etc. (*dharma*) go on decreasing, until in the end chaos and confusion reign over the earth; and the *utsarpiṇī*, or ascending era, in which there is an ever-growing evolution of piety and truth, etc. Each of these two equal eras is subdivided into six ages (*kālas*) of unequal length, which have their distinguishing features fixed for them for ever. The six ages of the *avasarpiṇī* (the present era) are: (1) *sushamā-sushamā*, the period of great happiness; (2) *sushamā*, the age of happiness; (3) *sushamā-duḥshamā*, the age of happiness and some misery; (4) *duḥshamā-sushamā*, the age of misery and some happiness; (5) *duḥshamā*, the age of misery (this is the particular period in which we are living; we have passed through about 2,400 years of it); (6) *duḥshamā-duḥshamā*, the age of great misery. The six ages of the *utsarpiṇī* have the same names, but they occur in the reverse order, *duḥshamā-duḥshamā* being the first age. Thus the first three ages of the *avasarpiṇī*, and therefore also the last three ages of the *utsarpiṇī*, are of enjoyment (*bhoga-bhūmi*). In these men have their birth and live and die without trouble or care. Everybody gets what he wants from the wishing-trees (*kalpa-vrikshas*).

c8.s1.1.2

This means that in the earliest periods of their existence men knew neither the arts and industries, nor the pastoral pursuits, nor agriculture, and that they kept body and soul together by a diet of fruits, roots, etc., wearing leaves and the bark of trees. It was in this way that the *kalpa-vrikshas* yielded food and clothing to the people of the *bhoga-bhūmi*. The remaining three ages, however, are of *karma-bhūmi*, the age or land of work. In these men have to work for their subsistence in this life and also for their comforts and blessings in the life to come. It is in the first of these last three, or in the fourth age of the era, that twenty-four Tīrthaṅkaras, or guides, arose. By pursuing the Jaina course of life, as laymen and ascetics, they obtained perfect knowledge and absolute and eternal freedom from the bondage of *karmas*, which alone keep a man in *saṃsāra* (cycle of existences); and they preached and published the Jaina religion to the world. The last of the Tīrthaṅkaras in the fourth age of the current cycle was Vardhamāna, otherwise Mahāvīra. He was born in 599 B.C.,¹ in the family of a ruling Kshattriya chief of the Nāya clan (hence in Buddhist books he is called Nāṭā-putta, a son of the Nāṭi, or Nāya lineage), in the republic of Vaiśālī (modern North Behar), in the town of the same name (hence he is called also Vaiśālika), at the site of the modern village of Besārh, about 27 miles north of Patna.

c8.s1.1.3

After living with his family during twenty-eight years as a married man with a daughter,² a wife, a brother, and sister, Vardhamāna, who had been from the beginning of a reflective turn of mind, bade a final farewell to his home and kindred, and retired into the solitude of the forests, very likely the Mahā-vana, which skirted the village of his birth on its northern side. There he meditated upon the misery which filled the earth, and sought to discover the means to a permanent release from the grasp of this eternal and inevitable suffering. After fourteen years of asceticism Mahāvīra felt that he had solved the riddle of human misery, and was prepared to preach it to the world as Jainism. This he did during a wandering life extending over thirty years from 557 B.C. to the year of his nirvāṇa, or final liberation, 527 B.C.,¹ at Pāvā-purī in modern Behar. Pāvā-purī is a place of pilgrimage : it is reached from Bakhtiārpur, a station on the East Indian Railway. The country abounds in clumps of tall palm-trees, which stand prominent and majestic against a calm and mild sky. A small river, now dried up, called the Paimār, is in the middle of the road to Pāvā-purī. Crossing the Paimār, we come in sight of the Pañcha Pahārī, the five hills on the site of the ancient city of Rāja-gṛiha, which also is a resort of Jaina pilgrims visiting Pāvā-purī. About 3 miles from the Paimār the journey is ended, and we near the calm and beautiful temples which constitute Pāvā-purī.

c8.s1.1.4

It is a small place, rendered attractive by its simple surroundings and its sacred traditions. There are several resting-houses for Jaina pilgrims, and about half a dozen temples erected by pious Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras. The pilgrims are of both sexes and are numerous, chiefly on the occasion of the Dewālī, the day on which Lord Mahāvīra attained *nirvāṇa*. This is the great Indian illumination feast, which falls early in winter. The pilgrimage continues till the end of March, when the attendance begins to decrease. The main temple, which contains the sacred footmarks of Mahāvīra, stands in the middle of a tank, covered with lotuses and other aquatic plants, and thronged with fishes of various kinds. The insulated temple of our last lord is reached by a bridge of stone. In the temple itself, in a low chamber facing the east, there are three niches. The central one, the largest of the three, contains the footmarks of Lord Mahāvīra; the niche on the right of it those of his disciple and apostle Gautama; and that on the left those of his other great apostle Sudharma Āchārya. Both these saints flourished in the time of Mahāvīra and attained *nirvāṇa* within sixty-two years of his death at Pāvā.

c8.s1.2

¹ Traditional date for the Śvetāmbaras, the Digambara tradition working out at 60 years earlier. Professor Jacobi would place the death of Mahāvīra in 477-6 B.C. and adjust the other dates accordingly.

c8.s1.3

² According to the Digambaras Mahāvīra never married and was a celibate throughout his life.

c8.s1.4

¹ Traditional dates : see preceding page, note 1.

c8.s1.5

It is not long since in the west both the personality of Mahāvīra and the originality of his doctrine were denied. His personality was merged in that of his great contemporary and rival, Gautama Buddha. His doctrine was stated to be an offshoot of Buddhism, or a rebellious variety of Brahmanism. Both these errors of western savants have now been abjured. As to the historicity of Mahāvīra, Professor Guérinot, among others, has emphasized five great points of difference between Lord Mahāvīra and Gautama Buddha, relating to their birth, the deaths of their mothers, their renunciation, illumination, and death. To this may be added the actual testimony of the Buddhist scriptures, which refer to Nātā-putta and the sect of Nirgranthas. This almost alone is enough to establish the individuality of Mahāvīra and his sect.

c8.s1.6

As to the relative antiquity of Jainism and Buddhism, Jaina study is deeply indebted to Professor Jacobi. His introductions, in 1884 and 1894, to vols. xxii and xlv of the *Sacred Books of the East* historically proved that, if there was any borrowing between Jainism and Buddhism, it was not on the side of Jainism. Dr. Jacobi's researches may be briefly summarized: for details reference must be made to his learned discussions. He lays down four distinct lines of evidence to prove the antiquity of Jainism:—

c8.s1.7

1. References in old Buddhist books to well-known, acknowledged doctrines of Jaina theology, metaphysics, and ethics: for example—

c8.s1.8

(1) A reference to cold water possessing a soul (i.e. to *jīvas*, or souls, of the *jala-kāya*) in the commentary on the *Brahmajāla Sutta* of the *Dīgha Nikāya*.

c8.s1.9

(2) A reference in the same work to the Jaina rejection of the *Ājīvaka* doctrine that the soul has colour.

c8.s1.10

(3) A reference in the *Samañña-phala Sutta* of the same *Nikāya* to the four vows of Pārśva-nātha. This is of special importance, as showing that the Buddhists were also aware of the older tradition of the Jainas with regard to the time and teachings of Pārśva-nātha.

c8.s1.11

(4) A reference in the *Majjhima Nikāya* (56) to the conversion of Upāli, a lay disciple of Mahāvīra, after a dispute with the Buddha as to the comparative iniquity of the sins of the body and the mind.

c8.s1.12

(5) A reference in the same work (56) to the three sorts of daṇḍas, ‘hurtful acts,’ namely, of body, speech, and mind, in which the Jainas believe.

c8.s1.13

(6) In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (iii, 74) Abhaya, a prince of the Lichchhavis of Vaiśālī, refers to the Jaina affirmation of ability to attain full knowledge and to annihilate karmas, old and new, by means of austerity.

c8.s1.14

(7) A reference in the same Nikāya (iii, 70. 3) to the Dig-virati vow and the Uposatha day. The Dig-virati vow is: “I shall go only in certain fixed directions to-day.” Uposatha is keeping a fast in which the layman is supposed to be in his thought and behaviour like an ascetic.

c8.s1.15

(8) In the Mahā-vagga (vi, 31) Siha, the general of the Lichchhavis, and a lay disciple of Mahāvīra, goes, against his master’s prohibition, to see the Buddha, and is converted by him on being taught the akriyā-vāda doctrine of Buddhism, which made him relinquish the Jaina doctrine of kriyā-vāda, inculcating a belief in soul, in the world, and in action (believed to be our own, either by our performing it, by our having it performed, or by our allowing it to be performed).

c8.s1.16

2. Indirectly also the Buddhist records attest the importance and probable high antiquity of Jainism :—

c8.s1.17

(1) They mention the Jainas (Nirgranthas) as the opponents and converts of Buddha, and never imply, much less assert, that they are a newly founded sect.

c8.s1.18

(2) Makkhali Gosāla divides mankind into six classes, of which the third is the Nirgranthas. A new sect could not have held such an important place in a division of mankind.

c8.s1.19

(3) The Buddha had a dispute with Sachchaka, who was a non-Nirgrantha son of a Nirgrantha father. This also proves decisively that the Jainas were not an offshoot of Buddhism.

c8.s1.20

3. The third line of evidence consists of the Jaina books themselves. There are no reasonable grounds for rejecting the recorded traditions of a numerous class of men, as being a tissue of meaningless fabrications. All the events and incidents relating to their antiquity are recorded so frequently and in such a matter-of-fact way that they cannot be properly rejected, unless under force of much stronger evidence than that adduced by scholars who are sceptical as to the antiquity of Jainism. In the *Uttarādhyayana Sūtra* (xxiii) an interview between Gautama and Keśin, the followers of Mahāvīra and Pārśva-nātha respectively, is held in a garden: after a conversation carried on in more or less occult terms the two leaders recognize the fundamental unity of the doctrines of their respective teachers, and leave the garden fully convinced that they are workers in the same field. This again points to an older Jaina faith, which prevailed before the advent of Mahāvīra and which was so vigorously reformed by him.

c8.s1.21

4. The last line of evidence is the ancient character of Jaina philosophy, e.g.:—

c8.s1.22

(1) The “animistic” beliefs of the Jainas.

c8.s1.23

(2) The absence of the category of Quality in their enumeration of the principal constituent elements of the Universe.

c8.s1.24

(3) The inclusion of *dharma* and *adharma*, the principles of motion and stationariness, in the class of substances.

c8.s1.25

From the above considerations Professor Jacobi concludes that Jainism was evolved at a very early period of Indo-Aryan history. It is evident that the Jaina creed has at least as many centuries as Buddhism between its present state and its origination.

c8.s1.26

Thus we see that Mahāvīra, a prince-ascetic of Vaiśālī, breathed his last at Pāvā-puri in 527 B.C. after having preached Jainism for thirty years in Northern India; also that he was not the founder, but only a reformer of a previously existing creed, whereof Pārśva-nātha was the head. Pārśva-nātha died in 776 B.C. This is in accordance with Jaina tradition. Epigraphical evidence—chiefly the Mathurā inscriptions dealt with by Dr. Führer—shows that there are dedications and offerings of a very ancient date made to Ṛishabha. Now Jainism claims that it was founded by Ṛishabha many and many a long century ago, and that this first preacher was followed by twenty-three others, of whom Pārśva-nātha was the twenty-third, being followed by Mahāvīra, the last Tīrthaṅkara, who attained *nirvāṇa* 250 years after Pārśva-nātha. Thus historical research allows the beginning and confirms the conclusion of the sacred Jaina tradition. Its main tenour has yet to be verified. The next link in the Jaina tradition is the historicity of Nemi-nātha, who was a prince in Kāthiāvāḍh and flourished before Pārśva-nātha. He is said to have preceded Pārśva-nātha by 5,000 years. But Indian history before 327 B.C. is mostly a reconstruction by analogy; and we need not pause to reject or defend the exact five millenniums which are said to separate Nemi-nātha from the historical Pārśva-nātha. But the authenticity of his life need not be rejected without strong evidence. He was a prince born of the Yādava clan at Dwārakā, and he renounced the world, when about to be married to Princess Rājamatī, daughter of the Chief Ugra-sena. When the marriage procession of Nemi-nātha approached the bride’s castle, he heard the bleating and moaning of animals in a cattle pen. Upon inquiry he found that the animals were to be slaughtered for the guests, his own friends and party. (It must be remembered that he was a Kshattriya and that the Kshattriyas as a rule hunt and take meat; although many of them renounce it altogether, and their women, even in modern India, do not partake of it.) Compassion surged up in the youthful breast of Nemi-nātha, and the torture which his marriage would cause to so many dumb creatures laid bare before him the mockery of human civilization and its heartless selfishness. He flung away his princely ornaments, and repaired at once to the forest. The bride who had dedicated herself to him as a prince followed him also in his ascetic’s life and became a nun. He attained nirvāṇa at Mount Girnār, in the small state of Junāgaḍh in Kāthiāwāḍh; and on the same lovely mountain is shown a grotto where the chaste Rājamatī breathed her last, not far from the feet of Nemi-nātha. There is a romance and idealism in the lives of these two wonderful souls; but the tradition is perfectly matter-of-fact, and there is no ground for rejecting it. As to the question of date, Nemi-nātha was a cousin of Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the Bhagavad-gītā, and the great guide and friend of Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa, and his clan the Yādavas, are known to have been in Dwārakā, a maritime city not far from the seat of Nemi-nātha's activity and nirvāṇa. Scholars of Hindu literature may be able to throw light upon the activity of Jainas or Nirganthas (or had they still a third name in Kāthiāwāḍh under Nemi-nātha?) of about the time of the Mahā-bhārata. A little more confirmation of the plausible and uncontroverted Jaina tradition will be a great point gained, as it will push back the light of knowledge of Jaina history by at least a thousand or more years.

c8.s1.27

As the last Tīrthaṅkara, then, Mahāvīra is the direct source of the existing Jaina sacred books. Mahāvīra's speech is stated to have been intelligible to all—even to the animals and birds—who were present at his sermons. It is a noticeable fact that Jainism is perhaps the only religion said to have been expounded to all living creatures, all understanding in their several ways the message of peace and freedom which it brought. To the absent, and to all who came after his nirvāṇa, Mahāvīra's chief disciples and apostles, the Gaṇa-dharas, explained the truth of things in accordance with the Jina's speech. Up till now the faith was promulgated only by word of mouth and by tradition, of which memory was the chief repository and means of continuance. The preceding Tīrthaṅkaras are, it may be said in passing, credited with having taught the same articles of faith and practice as Mahāvīra. Only a *sarva-jña*, one who knows all, can fully understand the whole truth as expounded by Mahāvīra; and, as men’s capacity of becoming omniscient goes on decreasing, so the real tradition of Jainism also becomes every day dimmer and more and more inaccurately represented. The whole of Mahāvīra’s teachings, when systematized, consisted of (1) twelve *Aṅgas*, the last *Aṅga*, the *Dṛiṣṭi-vāda*, being subdivided into (a) fourteen *Pūrvas*, (b) five *Parikarmas*, (c) *Sūtra*, (d) *Prathamānuyoga*, and (e) the five *Chūlikās*; and (2) the *Aṅga-bāhya Śruta*. A brief account of these is given in Appendix V.

c8.s1.28

After the *nirvāṇa* of Mahāvīra in 527 B.C. the knowledge of the eleven *Aṅgas* and fourteen *Pūrvas* was to a greater or lesser degree extant during 683 years, i.e. down to A.D. 156.¹ The tradition continued to disappear, and its history, as recorded in the Jaina *Paṭṭāvalīs*, is as follows: During sixty-two years after Mahāvīra, i.e. until 465 B.C., three Kevalins, Gautama, Sudharma, and Jambu, were the propagators, and all these three attained *nirvāṇa*, Jambu being the last in the present era. After these, during 100 years, i.e. until 365 B.C., five *Śruti-kevalins*, Viṣṇu-nandin, Nandi-mitra, Aparājita, Go-vardhana, and Bhadra-bāhu, carried on the tradition. So far the different *Paṭṭāvalīs* agree in dates and names, as well as in the number of Munis who flourished in the two periods. But henceforward the different traditions divide the remaining 521 years into different sub-periods and with different ascetics in them. But they generally agree in holding that the Śrutikevalins were followed by the Daśa-Pūrvins, the Daśa-Pūrvins by the Ekādaśa-Aṅgins, and the Ekādaśa-Aṅgins by the minor or Catur-Aṅgins and Eka-Aṅgins. After this all the Paṭṭāvalīs agree that no one was left with the knowledge of even one Aṅga, as it was first preached by Mahāvīra and then explained to the world by his chief disciples, the Gaṇa-dharas.¹

c8.s1.29

¹ Concerning this and the following dates see note 1 on p. xxvii.

c8.s1.30

¹ For the whole subject see Dr. Hoernle's articles in *Indian Antiquary*, vol. xx, pp. 341 sqq.; and vol. xxi, pp. 57 sqq.

c8.s1.31

In the time of Mahāvīra and the Kevalins writing was not employed to record the teachings of Jainism. Like the Brahmans, Buddhists, and others, the Jainas (they were called the Nigganthas or Nirgranthas) also had recourse to a highly trained memory for the preservation and propagation of their faith. But, as we have seen above, the knowledge of the Jaina scriptures was decaying generation after generation; and in the fourth century B.C. the Jainas had also begun to split up into the Śvetāmbaras and Digambaras. The Jaina Siddhānta was considered to be in imminent peril of being quite destroyed, if matters were left as they then were. Recourse was had to the art of writing, which for about four centuries had been progressing in the land.

c8.s1.32

According to the Śvetāmbaras, the Canon was reduced to fixity by the Council of Pāṭali-putra (modern Patna, in Behar) near the end of the fourth century B.C. But its final form was due to the Council at Valabhī, under the presidency of Devarddhi gaṇin, nearly eight hundred years later, about 454 A.D.¹ Eighty-four works were now recognized: forty-one Sūtras, thirty Paiṇṇas (or Prakīrṇakas, or unclassified works), twelve Niryuktis (or commentaries), and one Mahābhāshya. The forty-one Sūtras contain the eleven Aṅgas (according to the Digambaras they are lost), twelve Upāṅgas, five Chhedas, five Mūlas, and eight miscellaneous, of which one is the Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadra-bāhu, translated by Dr. Jacobi in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii.

c8.s1.33

¹ Professor Jacobi would correct this date to 514 A.D.

c8.s1.34

The Digambaras seem to hold that their sacred books came to be written after the Vikrama year 114, or A.D. 57, when the almost total extinction of men learned in the Aṅgas made it necessary to have the sacred lore reduced to writing. And then they took down, according to the remembered words spoken by Mahāvīra and the Kevalins who followed him, the scriptures relating to the seven tattvas, the nine padārthas, the six dravyas, the five astikāyas, the hells, the heavens, the siddha-kshetras, the madhya-loka with its many seas and continents, the jīvas with their classes, and the eighty-four lakhs (= 8,400,000) of conditions in the cycle of existences.

c8.s1.35

As to the later history of these scriptures, the Jaina tradition proceeds to relate that they were sunk in boatfuls by Śaṅkara Āchārya (A.D. 788–820) about the Vikrama year 846 (A.D. 789). Some of the books, however, were saved in Nepal in the North, in Sravana Belgola (Mysore), and in the Mewar country by pious Rājās and Mahā-rājas. After Śaṅkara Āchārya’s death and under more tolerant kings the followers of Jainism sought out these books and published them all over the country. These, then, are the direct originals of the many translations and commentaries which constitute the largest proportion of the books in the Jaina libraries attached to the temples or established apart.¹

c8.s1.36

¹ The division of the Jain community into the two sects of Śvetāmbaras, “White-robed,” and Digambaras, “Sky-robed,” i.e. naked, took place, according to their concurrent testimony, 609 years after Mahāvīra, i.e. about 80 A.D. But in germ it existed as early as the time of the First Council. The points of difference are minor ones, the Digambaras holding that the Perfect Saint lives without food, that a monk should not own anything, even clothes, and that salvation is not possible for a woman, for which last reason they do not admit of nuns. They also disown the canonical books of the Śvetāmbaras.

c8.s1.37

Thus it would seem that the Jaina Śāstras are very far from being the direct representatives of the teachings of the last Tīrthaṅkara, whose word alone, according to them, is infallible and deserving of unquestioned faith. The above sketch of the vicissitudes of Jaina sacred literature is sufficient to make us think twice before accepting the trite saying of Jaina pandits and others that the word of Kevalins must be taken as truth itself. Jainism claims to be eternal. But Jainism, or the spirit of Jainism, is not identical with the body of written Jainism, as it exists to-day. Twenty-four centuries have passed since Mahāvīra

c8.s1.38

Later divisions gave rise to various other sects, such as that of the Luṅkās (1452 A.D.), which denounces idols, and that of the still somewhat numerous Sthānaka-vāsīs, or Ḍhuṇḍhiās (1653 A.D.), holding the same view. Other sects, ancient and mediaeval, are mentioned in literary and epigraphical documents.

c8.s1.39

taught his simple creed. And many minor points in Jainism will be found to be additions and excrescences upon the parent stock which was planted in the sixth century B.C. To my mind three doctrines of Jainism must be specially noted as being the basic principles of the faith.

c8.s1.40

In theology, in addition to the beliefs in *karma*, reincarnation, etc., which Jainism held in common with other Indian religious and metaphysical systems, it boldly laid down the principle that man, by following the requisites of faith, knowledge, and conduct, can attain divinity; that God is only the highest, the noblest, and the fullest manifestation of all the powers which lie latent in the soul of man.

c8.s1.41

In philosophy Jainism holds the doctrine of many points of view. The universe may be studied in many aspects, and different view-points give rise to different statements and conclusions. As to details, the most important sections of Jaina philosophy deal with the three jewels, the seven *tattvas*, the nine *padārthas*, the six *dravyas*, and furnish a detailed description of the first *tattva*, soul, and of the last, *nirvāṇa*, the soul's final liberation.

c8.s1.42

In ethics the first principle is *ahiṃsā*, non-hurting of any kind of life, howsoever low may be the stage of its evolution.

c8.s1.43

It is upon these three doctrines that the whole of Jainism is found mainly to rest.

Linked texts (11)