The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c5: A Short History of Jain Research

The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c5

Language: English

A Short History of Jain Research

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§ 1. It was in the year 1807 that in the *Asiatic Researches* (Calcutta and London), Vol. IX, there appeared three reports published under the title "Account of the Jains" and collected by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Colin MACKENZIE supplemented by an abstract from his diary of 1797 and from that of Dr. F. BUCHANAN¹, the latter containing some notes of a Jain gentleman. These publications were immediately followed by H. Th. COLEBROOKE'S "Observations on the Sect of Jains"². They were based upon those researches as well as on Colebrooke's own, and it was in them that, apart from bare descriptive recording, some scholarly spirit first made itself felt by a critical standpoint taken and by facts being combined. Jain research thus dates from somewhat more than 150 years ago.

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¹ BUCHANAN published "A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar" (Lo. 1807, 2nd ed. Madras 1870, comp. GUÉRINOT JAs. 1909, p. 55). In this work the Jains are often mentioned. BUCHANAN'S Journal kept during the Survey of the Districts of Patna and Gaya in 1811-12", ed. by V.H. JACKSON, Patna 1925, contains a description of his visit to the place where Mahāvīra died. Comp. JACOBI SPAW 1930, p. 561.

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² Printed in Colebrooke's *Miscellaneous Essays*, 2nd, ed. (1872) vol. II, 191-224.

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In H. H. WILSON'S "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus" we find some stray notes about the Jains, but no details are given, though, on the other hand, the author dwells upon Vol. I of the *Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society* (1827) which contained an essay by DELAMAINE and one more by BUCHANAN (=F. Buchanan HAMILTON), both with the title "On the Srawacs or Jains" and followed by a few remarks of the latter and of W. FRANCKLIN about some Jain temples, by COLEBROOKE'S account of two inscriptions, and by WILSON'S own review of COLEBROOKE'S study "Sect of Jina" in his "Essays on the Philosophy of the Hindus"¹. In the same year, 1827, FRANCKLIN'S "Researches on the Tenets of the Jeynes and Boodhists" were published, the first book that had the Jains in its title. Its descriptive portions are readable even now, whereas this cannot be said of its mythological and speculative deductions.

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¹ We should not like to pass over in silence the earliest references to the Jains. Comp WINDISCH in his Geschichte der indo-arischen Philologie etc., p 29, ZACHARIAE WZKM 24. 357-341 (reprinted in his Kleine Schriften, p. 41-47) and Festschrift Winternitz p. 174-185, RANDLE JRAS 1933, p 147 The Greek glossator Hesychios (5th century AD) mentions 'gennoi' as naked philosophers, a word in which M. SCHMIDT in his 2nd ed. (1867) of Hes p 342 surmises the Jains, comp GRAY and SCHUYLER, Am. J of Philol 22 (1901), p 197 LASSEN, Ind Altertumskunde 4 (1861) and LÜDERS KZ 38, p. 433 are not against SCHMIDT's suggestion, whereas STEIN in Megasthenes and Kautilya, p 293 f. maintains a cautious attitude.

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We abstain from cataloguing here which was printed after 1827, since this can be found in GUÉRINOT's Bibliography (s.b.). We must confine ourselves to mention that "Sketch" of WILSON, because it represents the most important treatment of the subject at that time. He gives a report on the numerable Jain manuscripts both privately owned by him and by the Calcutta Sanskrit College. His "Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection"² dealt with 44 South Indian Jain manuscripts that had come to the East India Company in London. But even the earliest essays were partly based upon texts as was COLEBROOKE'S first one in that it concerned Hemacandra's Abhidhānacintāmani and the Kalpasūtra of the Jain Canon. Still he made use of both in a selective manner only and was far from editing or translating them completely, and twenty years had to pass until the first Jain text was published. Again it was Hemacandra's work that was edited by BÖHTLINGK and RIEU with a German translation in 1847 (St. Petersburg), whereas the Kalpasūtra, along with the Navatattvaprakarana, appeared in 1848 in STEVENSON's English rendering³. That this was a rather imperfect performance⁴ is easily explained by the fact that STEVENSON was the first European scholar to be confronted with the canonical Prakrit¹. The Abhidhāna-cintāmaṇi in 1858 was followed² by WEBER'S edition of Dhaneśvara's Śatruṃjayamāhātmya³ with a detailed preface. So, then, the textual basis was rather narrow for LASSEN'S sketch of Jainism⁴ in his "Indische Altertumskunde" 4, 755-787 (1861).⁵

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² The Mackenzie Collection. A descriptive Catalogue...By...H.H. WILSON C 1828, 2nd ed. Madras 1882

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³ The Kalpa-Sūtra and Nava Tatva Two works illustrative of the Jain religion and philosophy. Transl from the Magadhi by J. STEVENSON. Lo. 1848.

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⁴ Comp. JACOBI, The Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu, p. 27ff.

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¹ PISCHEL, Grammatik der Prakrit-Sprachen in § 17 deals with the history of research in the Ardha-Māgadhī.

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² PAVIE'S French analysis of the Padmāvatīcaritra in JAs 5; T. 7 may also be mentioned.

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³ Albrecht WEBER, Über das Śatruṃjaya Māhātmyam. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Jaina. Leipzig 1858.

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⁴ The word Jainism is an English rendering and etymologically not correct. In German works of LEUMANN, WINTERNITZ, the AUTHOR and others the student will read "Jinismus" and "Jinistisch" derived from Jina, as are, in all languages, "Buddhism etc." from Buddha. "Bauddhism" etc. has never and nowhere been said.

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⁵ Translation by REHATSEK JA 2, 193-200; 258-265

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§ 2. The mentioned edition had been WEBER'S first attempt in Jain research, but years later it was actually his great study "Über ein Fragment der Bhagavatī etc." that was epoch-making. It appeared in two parts in the Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1865-66 and in a separate edition (1866-67), that is to say again twenty years after the first Jain text (s.a.). Obsolete as it is now, yet it marks in our field the beginning of a philological and creative epoch. As to it, the reader may be referred to WINDISCH'S precise description rendered in the Grundriss (Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research). But the fundaments laid down by WEBER in self-sacrificing zeal cannot be passed over here: his treatise "Über die heiligen Schriften der Jaina" in Indische Studien Vol. 16 and 17 (1883-85) based upon the Jain manuscripts acquired by the Royal Library of Berlin 1873-78, and his "Verzeichnis" of the same (1888-92), the latter⁶ represented by two monumental volumes, being a most accurate description which even extends to literature and history. A work of that scope going beyond the usual limits of a catalogue was not out of place at that stage. The Jain manuscripts purchased in later years have been catalogued by the AUTHOR not earlier than in 1944¹.

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⁶ "A good deal of my visual faculty has been buried therein", Verz. II, 3, p. XVIII.

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¹ Die Jaina-Handschriften der Preussischen Staatsbibliothek. Neuerwerbungen seit 1891. Leipzig 1944. (1127 mss. on 647 pages.)

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Some time about those eighties the first prints of canonical texts (1880 ff.) came to Europe adding to foster Jain research work over there. Their inaugurator was RĀY DHANPATI SIMHA Bāhādur at Azimganj or Murshidabad in Bengal. Those huge volumes served their purpose until they were replaced by more handy ones some thirty years after (s.b.).

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The manuscripts described by WEBER had come to Berlin thanks to an agreement between BÜHLER and the Department of Public Instruction at Bombay which had commissioned him and other scholars in their service with the careful examination of private collections and the purchase of manuscripts at government costs. He was allowed to acquire manuscripts even for foreign libraries, provided they were doubles. The examined and purchased manuscripts were catalogued and listed in the valuable reports of R.S. and S.R. BHANDARKAR, BÜHLER, KIELHORN, PETERSON, and others. The manuscripts acquired by the Government have been deposited in the Deccan College, now Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Poona. The Jain works among them have been minutely described by H.R. KAPADIA in Vol. XVII of the Descriptive Catalogue of the Institute (1935-48). An appendix is devoted to graphic peculiarities (comp. JUB Vol. 5 and 6)².

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² WEBER already dealt with this topic (Verz. II 3, p. XII ff.). LEUMANN discussed the influence of the shape of the leaves upon the text (ZDMG 46, 583f.). Miniatures in manuscripts were treated by HÜTTEMANN, Baessler-Archiv 4, 2; BROWN, Jaina Gazette 28, p. 77-83 (reviewed by Hirananda SASTRI ibid. 113 f.); BROWN, Kālaka (§ 24) with a bibliography. The Bibliography of Indian Archaeology may also be consulted.

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BÜHLER, through his Reports, has not only become a patron of Jain philology indirectly, but thanks to a number of original works and essays has been a direct promotor in our field, as, in the course of years, WEBER, too, had been, and, moreover, they both have inspired younger scholars. JACOBI'S critical edition of the "Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu" (AKM 7, 1 1879) clearly shows traces of BÜHLER'S spirit, while LEUMANN'S "Aupapātika Sūtra" (AKM 8, 2; 1883)—originally a thesis of Leipzig—is influenced by WEBER and the Berlin Collection. It may be mentioned here that WEBER successfully co-operated with LEUMANN in his great essay referred to above. The editions of both JACOBI and LEUMANN are masterpieces of philology, and it was only a predilection for the old Prakrit grammarians that led PISCHEL in his famous "Grammatik der Prakrit-Sprachen" (§ 19, footnote 3) to call HOERNLE'S "Uvāsagadasāo" (1890) the only "critical" one¹.

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¹ A reflex of Pischel's remark can be seen in Antagaḍadasāo ed. BARNETT, p. X, comp LEUMANN JRAS 1907, p. 1080. As to the Uvās., see LEUMANN'S review WZKM 3, 328-350.

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§ 3. JACOBI'S introduction to the Kalpasūtra has come to be fundamental for all further research. This research has been described up to the twenties of this century by WINDISCH and need not be repeated here². Its starting point was, due to JACOBI³, the definite removal of any doubt whether the Jains or the Buddhists were of earlier origin⁴, a doubt resulting from some inward and outward similarities between those two world-denying religions. Jain creed had sprung into existence long before Gautama Buddha's time, Vardhamāna Mahāvīra was not its founder, but a reformer of what-Pārśva had taught, whom tradition credibly maintains to have lived 250 years before him. It may be added here from a later deduction of JACOBI'S that Mahāvīra's Nirvāna was in 477 B.C. As we know from Pali sources, he was a contemporary of Gautama and is likely to have survived him by seven years⁵.

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² For Jain studies in Italy mostly going back to JACOBI see the indo-logical bibliography up to 1911 in Rivista degli Studi Orientali 5, 219-271.

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³ See his introduction to the Kalpasūtra and to SBE 22 and 45.

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⁴ COLEBROOKE found it necessary to investigate the precedence of the Veda and of Brahmanism before the said religions (Observations etc., Misc. Essays II 196 ff.). FRANCKLIN had no doubt that the original religion of India was that of the "Boodh" and the "Jeyne" (Researches p. 137).

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⁵ SPAW 1930, p. 557ff. (§19). Counter-arguments brought forward by KEITH Bull. School Or. Studies 6, p. 859-866.

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Pali texts, moreover, give numerous details about thinkers and their schools in the Buddha's time. F.O. SCHRADER, a pupil of Leumann, made them the subject of his thesis in 1902⁶.

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⁶ Über den Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit Mahāvīras and Buddhas. Strassburg 1902.

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The most important of those philosophers was Gośāla Maskariputra, the head of the Ājīvika sect, whose interesting career has been repeatedly treated by HOERNLE¹. That Aśoka knew the Jains under the name of nigantha (Topra edict 7, 26) was BÜHLER’S statement². Their early history in so far as it is reflected by Hemacandra in his Pariśiṣṭaparvan (the Sthavirāvali) and in legends pertaining to it, is due to JACOBI no less than is the right interpretation of what is called the schism that led to the separation of the Śvetāmbara and Digambara communities. They did not, as old time would have it, separate by an act of violence but gradually, until, eventually, both partners became aware of their differences.

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¹ Uvās. II app., Encyclop of Religion and Ethics I, p. 259ff Later publications see § 18.—A full account of Schools and Sects in Jaina Literature by Amulyachandra SEN, C 1931

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² ZDMG 16, p 91 ; Ep Ind 2, 274 Acc. to the former place the discovery is due to LASSEN.

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§ 4. It might have been expected that continued Jain research in Europe should have led to the origin of a Jaina Text Society as a counterpart to the well-known Pali Text Society. PISCHEL expressed his hope in this direction³, but things took a different course. The edition of canonical texts—which, of course, was the most important—did not go on methodically, but as circumstances would have it. We are glad to say that the Jains themselves came to help, if, to be true, in their own style. The Āgamodaya-Samiti, founded at Mhesana in 1915, has published most works of the Śvetāmbara Siddhānta and many more non-canonical texts. These handy prints mark a great progress as compared with the monstrous volumes mentioned above. The classical commentary in Sanskrit has been added. It is wanting in the Jain Sūtra Battisī which was a rather primitive undertaking (Haidarabad 1920), though Ṛṣi (i.e. Sādhu) Amolak⁴ had contributed a Hindī paraphrase.

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³ SPAW 1903, f 11. PISCHEL lived half a century too early to see the foundation of the Prakrit Text Society on a large scale in 1953. For the first Volume see § 56.

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⁴ The same as Amolakh Ṛṣiji, the author of Mukti Sopān (Ha darābād 1915), born in S. 1933, as is evident from the preface.

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The most recent print¹ is without any commentary whatever. Its name, taken from Ardhamāgadhi, is Suttāgame. Both the Battīsī and the Suttāgame are Sthānakvāsī prints and, for that reason, they contain no more than 32 Āgamas out of the traditional 45.

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¹ Shri Sutragama Prakashak Samiti, Gurgaon Cantt., E P.

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§ 5. The old texts, in many cases, have been handed down to us in a very curious shape which makes them rather unintelligible for the unprepared reader. The copyists of olden time being confronted with innumerable repetitions have recoursed, as can be easily understood, to abbreviations which, however, violated the context. Up to this day, the printed books pass over them as through thick and thin. The reader, indeed, is prepared to forbear as traditional and respectable peculiarities of Jain style a certain monotony of question and answer, dry lists, and long complexes (though not altogether void of euphony) of what has turned out to be metrical passages². But he is longing for a less clumsy wording. This might be easily achieved by a rational method of dissolving those abbreviations and by providing the necessary references, a method which would result in a readable text where the valuable trend of thought now often concealed would eventually appear in a lucid form. It goes without saying that critical examination and comparison of traditions will remain indispensable. Let it be admitted that the want of controllable oldest manuscripts is often a stumbling stone in the way towards that ideal of a critical edition. Hundreds of Jain works are still preserved in partly subterranean bhaṇḍārs where they were deposited centuries ago, and those precious libraries remained inaccessible since the conservatism of the owners could not overcome their disinclination towards their treasures being published. When BÜHLER was allowed to have a glance into the baṛā bhaṇḍār of Jaisalmer, he was misled to the mass of what was preserved there. It was not earlier than a few years ago that a scholarly examination of bhaṇḍār manuscripts became feasible, and our thanks and respects are due to Munirāj PUṆYAVIJAYA for his working towards that noble aim¹.

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² The Veḍha metre, discovered by JACOBI Ind. Stud. 17, p. 389ff. ; later treatments by the AUTHOR, Worte p. 3f. ; ALSDORF in Asiatica (Festschrift Weller), p. 16.

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¹ See ALSDORF in Festschrift Schubring, p. 59f.

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§ 6. The ‘classical’ Sanskrit commentary to the Śvetāmbara canon represents the climax of a vast scholastic literature. Its predecessors in Prakrit, the Nijjuttis and Cuṇṇis, were, for a long time, neglected by scholars. We might even say that, in a certain sense, this is still true to-day, for the publications of Cuṇṇis issued in the course of the last decades do not contain even the slightest illustrative or critical addition, though the merits of Muni JINAVIJAYA Acharya in laying them before the reader are indisputable. It was nearly half a century earlier (1892) that LEUMANN, on the ground of his own subtle investigations based not upon prints but upon manuscripts, has shown (ZDMG 46, p. 586) the importance of those voluminous products for not only Jain dogmatics but for the history of literature in general. Unfortunately the author did not pursue those researches he had characterized as “indispensible for the exploration of the Jain literature of several centuries”, pointing out that the Kathās in the old commentaries often appear in non-Jinistic works. Still we possess his “Āvaśyaka-Erzählungen” (AKM 10, 2; 1897) which after the most subtle examination of the best manuscripts give the pure text of those old moral illustrations. It is a point of regret that no more than but four forms of that work should have been printed and that a continuation, though promised, should never have seen the light of the day. It was younger recensions of Jain stories that were translated and explored as to their motives and their importance for comparative history of literature by HERTEL and others. In his essay “On the Literature of the Shvetambaras of Gujarat” (1922) we find the following remarkable passage: “During the middle-ages down to our own days the Jains and especially the Śvetāmbaras of Gujarat, were the principal story-tellers of India. Their literature contains, in huge masses, the materials which the students of folklore, who wish to do true scientific work, should thoroughly study in preference to all the other Indian narrative literature.” But HERTEL did not leave any doubt that in his opinion not even the preliminary condition, i.e. of critical texts and precise translations was fulfilled. As to his intrinsic studies of the Kathānakas for which he succeeded to produce parallels even from non-Indian sources, the reader is referred to WINTERNITZ’ History of Indian Literature Vol. 2.

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Jain Sanskrit in the Stories, according to HERTEL, is a common people's language with its usual carelessness and some borrowings from Prakrit or from the author's provincial tongue; it must not be measured by the standard of classical Bhāratī. This definition serves to weaken a severe judgment pronounced by BÜHLER (loc. cit. p. 14). At other places in scholarly literature, too, peculiarities of Jain Sanskrit have been noted down. BLOOMFIELD in the second of four systematical collections¹ has pointed out, (1) the influence of Prakrit and an early stage of New Indian (Gujarati and Marathi) already mentioned, (2) in some cases hyper-sanskritization of words apparently Prakritic, (3) borrowings from dictionaries and grammars, (4) use of words of un-known origin. Apart from Amitagati's Dharmaparīkṣā (ed. MIRONOW) this judgment was based upon Śvetāmbara works. A description of the origin and progress of linguistic studies in the Prakrits (Ardhamāgadhī, Jaina-Māhārāṣṭrī, Jaina Śaurasenī) and Apabhraṃśas in Jain literature is beyond the scope of this book.

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¹ Life and stories of the Jain Saviour Pārśvanātha (Baltimore 1919); p. 220; Some Aspects of Jaina Sanskrit (Antidōron, Festschrift Wackernagel 1923, p. 220 ff. ; The Śālibhadra Carita (JAOS 1923, p. 290-316); On Diminutive Pronouns in Jaina Sanskrit (Festschrift Lanman 1929, p. 7 ff.).

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When stopping further publication of the “Avaśyaka-Erzählungen” LEUMANN had consoled the reader with his “Übersicht über die Avaśyaka-Literature” to come out “in the very next time.” Materials from manuscripts and manuscripts only, a long list of which LEUMANN has given in ZDMG 45 and 46, had been collected for the purpose of laying bare the different layers of an extensive scholastic literature concerning certain indispensable (āvaśyaka) formulae of daily devotion. By this great work he was many decades ahead of his time. But, unfortunately, in this case too, printing was stopped when the 14th form (in folio) had been composed. Not until 34 years later this fragment, rich in contents, but difficult to study, was published by the AUTHOR who was fortunate enough to find the proofs being preserved¹.

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¹ LEUMANN, Übersicht uber die Avaśyaka-Literatur, aus dem Nachlass hrsg v Walther SCHUBRING, Hamburg 1934 Obituary by the same, ZDMG 87, p 69-75.

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§ 7. All history of literature, a building, as it were, has for its ground-floor the bio-bibliographical materials. Jain research would have enjoyed the great luck of having them at its disposal, if KLATT’s Onomasticon had been completed and printed. Eight volumes from his own hand in alphabetical order contain what was within his reach to collect data concerning Jain authors and works. But he fell severely ill and never recovered. The work was estimated to fill some 1,100 pages in print, but no more than 55 pages have been printed as a specimen thanks to WEBER and LEUMANN². The first to become a bibliographer of Jainism was GUÉRINOT by his “Essai de bibliographie jaina” (1906). A modern standard was not reached until 1944, when VELANKAR’s Jinaratnakoṣa appeared, where the Jain works have been catalogued, while a second volume containing their authors is still waiting for being published. A primitive forerunner had been the “Jaina Granthāvali” published by the Jain Śvetāmbara Conference in 1908.

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² Specimen of a literary-biographical Onomasticon by Dr. Joh. KLATT Leipzig 1892.—His obituary by LEUMANN IA p. 23, 169.

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Another fundament for Jain history are the inscriptions. GUÉRINOT’s “Essai” was followed in 1908 by a “Répertoire d’épigraphie jaina.” Though not the work of a specialist, yet LUDERS’ “List of Brāhmī Inscriptions from the earliest time till about 400 A.D. with the exception of those of Aśoka” is valuable thanks to innumerable inscribed allusions to the Order of Jain laymen and monks. (EI 10, App. L.C. 1912.)

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It seems to be a digression from our subject when we note that BÜHLER in his academical lecture “Über die indische Sekte der Jainas” (1887) was the first to call up the interest of non-scholars for Jainism, legitimated as he was to do so thanks to 17 years of official service in the then Bombay Presidency. Mrs. S. STEVENSON, trained in the Christian Mission of Gujarat, wrote her book "The Heart of Jainism" in 1915, thus challenging a strong resentment at least among the Digambaras¹. It is curious to see that, while this authoress regretted to miss true warmth of heart in the religion she described, PERTOLD in a public lecture approved of its being excluded from it². GUERINOT'S book "La religion djaina" (1926) was exposed to criticism as was the book just mentioned³. One year before (1925) H.v. GLASENAPP'S by far more instructive and comprehensive work "Der Jainismus, eine indische Erlosungsreligion" had come into the hands of many grateful readers.

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¹ Jagmanderlal JAINI : A Review of the H. of J., Ambala 1925. Earlier, Mrs. STEVENSON published "Notes on modern Jainism", Oxford 1910.

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² O. PERTOLD, 'The Place and Importance of Jainism in the Comparative Science of Religions (Bh. without year), p. 21 : "I think this sentimental aspect is the least desirable in a modern religion, which must go parallel with the fast development of sciences".

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³ Critically reviewed by Charlotte KRAUSE ZDMG 84, p. 192-202 ; comp. also FRAUWALLNER WZKM 36, p. 336 ff.

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To the same author we owe his contribution to the Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft representing Jain literature and writing according to the different literary species. WINTERNITZ' History of Indian Literature Vol. II, p. 289-356 (1920) which deals with the same subject is too well known for its merits for being praised here.

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§ 8. Thus far we have registered western working for the public knowledge of Mahāvīra's religion. As to the countless pamphlets and journals through which the Jains themselves, for the purpose of propaganda, appeal to the general public, we but mention them here in passing. Of the publications useful for scholars we refer to VIJAYADHARMA Sūri's (s.b.) Jainatattvajñāna (in Festschrift Winternitz), JAINI's "Outlines of Jainism", P. C. Nahar's "Epitome of Jainism" and Ch. R. JAIN's "Jaina Law." Research further receives great help by compilations as are catalogues of private libraries, collections of Paṭṭāvalis and of Praśastis, biographies, etc. They all, however, are overshadowed by the "Abhidhānarājendra", a Sanskrit encyclopedia in 7 volumes, whose Prakrit catchwords are taken from the canonical and scholastical literature of the Śvetāmbaras, a monumental work by VIJAYARĀJENDRA Sūri (1827-1907, Ratlam 1913-25). A glossary of the Canon in three languages is the Illustrated Ardha-Magadhi Dictionary of Muni RATNACANDRA in 5 volumes (Indaur 1923-32). Prakrits of all kind including that of the Jains have flown together to mix in the ocean called "Pāia-Sadda-Mahaṇṇavo, a complete Prakrit-Hindi Dictionary" (1928) by Pandit Hargovind Das SHETH. Precise data of places as well as large supplements will increase the value of that great work. Among the periodicals we should like to mention the Anekānt, Jain Antiquary, Jain Hitaisī where literature and history are being discussed by Jain authors, many of whom, of course, have contributed also to non-Jinist journals. Nearest related to the periodicals are the series (grantha-mālā). In many cases they represent a very remarkable file including rare and significant works provided with a scholarly introduction. It is a pity that many Grantha-mālās should have become known in the West only in fragments, if at all. The Śvetāmbaras can be proud of the volumes, apart from the Siddhānta, published by the Āgamodaya-Samiti, by the Devcand Lālbhāi-J.-Pustakoddhāra, the Ātmānanda-Grantharatnamālā (Bhn, 1911 ff.), the Yaśovijaya-J.-Gr., started in 1904 and apparently the oldest Jain series, and many more literary undertakings which cannot be enumerated here. Our thanks are equally due to the Digambaras. A parallel to the Siddhānta are the classical Digambara authors. They have been printed and translated in the Sacred Books of the Jains (Arrah 1917 ff.; Sanātana-J. Gr.-M. (Ben. 1917 ff.); Śrī Rāyacandra-J. Śāstra-M. (Bo. 1916 ff.) Māṇikcand-J.-Gr.-M.(Bo. 1915 ff.). The most recent series is the Jñānapīṭha-Mūrtidevī-J.-Gr.-M. (Banaras 1918 ff.), a younger counterpart to the Singhi J.-Gr.-M. (Bo. 1933 ff.) of the Śvetāmbaras, edited by Muni JINAVIJAYA.

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§ 9. These intimations are merely meant to demonstrate the respectable activity within the Jain communities as to their

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almost inexhaustible stock of literature, an activity radiating as far as to the field of Western research. This state of affairs can be dated from the first two decades of this century. It is true that it was HOERNLE who, as early as in 1890, could dedicate the first volume of his Uvāsagadasāo to VIJAYĀNANDA Sūri (Ānandavijaya=Ātmārāma, 1837-97) in grateful acknowledgment of various suggestions and corrections, though it is equally true that it was VIJAYADHARMA Sūri (1868-1922), never failing to help when being consulted by European scholars¹, who proved by far more effective. The renaissance just mentioned with the Śvetāmbaras at least is due to his lasting impulse.

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¹ Western acknowledgments and recollections by WINTERNITZ, GUÉRINOT, BELLONI-FILIPPI and others; A J. SUNAWALA, V. Dh. S, His Life and Work. With a prefatory note by F. W. THOMAS, Cambridge 1922, the SAME, Adarsha Sadhu, an ideal monk, 2nd ed. Cambridge 1934 ; VIJAYA INDRA Sūri, Reminiscences of V. Dh. S., Shivpuri 1924.

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For a long time research in Europe and America was known to the Jains to but a certain degree, that is to say, as far as their knowledge of English allowed. Books and articles in German and other Western languages frequently remained beyond their reach. Hence it follows that quite a number of data produced by them are well-known in Western literature. It is evident, therefore, that of all works of JACOBI's (1850-1937)² none have come to their knowledge than those written in English. But even this crop harvested on the Jain field by an all-round genial indologist was abundant enough for a Jain Conference in 1914 held on the occasion of JACOBI's second stay in India, to bestow upon him the honorary title of Jaina-darśana-divākara. We are thus justified in this historical sketch in reproducing how to him, in several publications³, Jainism presented itself in view of its relation to other creeds and systems.

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² Obituary by H.v. GLASENAPP ZDMG 92, p. 1-14 ; the AUTHOR, Jain Gazette 1937.

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³ On the Metaphysics and Ethics of the Jainas (Transact. 3rd Congr. for the History of Religion 2, p. 59-66 ; Die Entwicklung der Gottesidee bei den Indern (1923) p. 21 ff. ; Gött. Gelehrte Anz. 1919, p. 16 ff, ; Encyclop. f. Rel. and Ethics 7, p. 465 ff, ; SPAW 1929, p. 322 ff. ; a summary in Forschungen und Fortschritte 6, p. 36.

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§10. On the foregoing pages it has been said already that research started from the similarity observed between Mahāvīra’s and the Buddha’s teaching, those two coeval features which both result in a monk’s life, touching each other in many respects and agreeing in considering Right Knowledge to be the means of how to get rid of the endless chain of rebirth. There is, however, a difference (among others) between them in that the Buddha does not share the high opinion of ascetic practices which, in Mahāvīra’s belief, are essential for reaching the ultimate goal. Further differences will be found in metaphysics. But here the partner of the comparison¹ is not so much Buddhism as the Sāṃkhya. In the Sāṃkhya the development of the world starts from matter that is imperishable and infinite as to quality going on in a determined sequel defined by means of Brahman terms. The Jains, being far from the Brahman way of thinking, do not acknowledge such a sequel, since, in their eyes, the world is eternal, though they agree with the Sāṃkhya in considering matter as being capable of developing in whatever direction. Moreover, logic compels them, as does the Sāṃkhya, to consider as important the transition (pariṇāma) from the one status to the next. And third, both are in harmony as to the original conception of the soul. “The Jainas call jīva all souls, the Sāṃkhya those that exist in the concrete world. Thus it seems that “soul” has been abstracted from “living being”, that is to say, from a popular view.” The same idea appears in the conception that the soul is as large as the body, a conception which is apparent with the Jainas, while it is at least inferable from the original Sāṃkhya and Yoga. Both Jainism and Sāṃkhya pretend a plurality of bodies. It seems that this conception replaced the primitive idea of a plurality of souls at a time when the doctrine of the One Ātman could not be neglected any longer. This applies to the doctrine of Karman and of reincarnation following from the former and which, by the by, is a primitive idea as well. Both Karman and reincarnation are the fundaments of the Sāṃkhya system as well as of that of the Jains. The very fact that both these systems, as they now stand, are so very unlike to each other contributes to their common features being extremely significant, and this explains itself by their having embodied elements of common-sense view (Volksglauben). The time when this happened can be calculated thanks to non-Jinist testimonials of spiritual development as well as to chronology. Both agree in going back as far as the 8th century B.C.

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¹ Comp. W. BOHN, Die Religion des Jaina und ihr Verhaltnis zum Buddhismus, Zeitschr. f. Buddhismus, p. 113-140; LEUMANN, Buddha und Mahāvīra, ibd. 4 (separate offprint, Munich 1921).

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The Jain system, moreover, exhibits archaic traits not found in other systems. Among them we have the theory of the elementary particles (earth, water, fire, wind) possessing souls, and the names of *dharma* and *adharma* for the media of motion and stop. The former can be rubricated as animism, whereas in the latter there appears the conception of "invisible fluids which by contact cause sin and merit"¹, a conception coming near to primitive sorcery. In later chapters of this book we are going to point out some more characteristics of such primitive or popular thinking ("Volksglaube"). It is very well imaginable that, apart from this basis, Mahāvīra made use of the conceptions of other systems², though his is not dependent on other systems we know of³. On the other hand it is probable that the Jains influenced the Yoga as taught by Patanjali, but in subordinate items only. There is no relation to the Vaiśeṣika system assumed by JACOBI, though it shares its atomistic character with that of the Jains. Since the similarity between both of them cannot possibly be ignored, the Jains maintained that a heretic⁴ named Chaluya Rohagutta was the inventor of the Vaiśeṣika system. For scholars⁵ take the word Chaluya as an illusion to the six (*cha*) categories in the "owl" (*uluya*)-philosophy, i.e. the teaching of the Kānādas or "cow-eaters", i.e. "owls." The doctrine imputed to Rohagutta is that he undertook to add a third category (*rāśi*) called *nojīva*, to the natural and traditional ones, viz. *jīva* and *ajīva*. It seems impossible to prove that the Vaiśeṣika took its origin from that rather funny doctrine. Rohagutta was defeated dialectically by 144 items the detailed list of which, being based on the Vaiśeṣika, turns out to be a secondary addition.

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¹ JACOBI at frequent places.

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² "Mahāvīra probably borrowed much more from other sects than we shall ever be able to prove", JACOBI SBE 45, p. XXXII.

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³ A conjecture that Umāsvāti in T. 7, 5 ff. was influenced by the Yoga-sūtra was not maintained by JACOBI SPWA 1930, p. 607. Some contact between both of them is stated by him ad T. 2, 52 and 9, 46.

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⁴ This was the 6th heresy of the 7 known in tradition (§ 17).

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⁵ JACOBI (following WEBER) Kalpasūtra p. 119, SBE 45, XXXV ff., ad T, 9. Most important LEUMANN, Ind. Stud. 17, p. 121 ff.

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§11. It is in this connexion that, last not least, we wish to refer to a subject common to both Jainism and Hinduism, without being entitled to pretend that the latter influenced the former. The belief in the force of magic syllables has its roots in the primitive stage of mankind. In Brahman literature it appears ever since the remotest times of antiquity. No wonder, then, that in later centuries we find it even in Jainism where a great many of Stotras resound with those incantations which even an illiterate might master¹. But the Jains, moreover, have found a way for educated people to bring forward their praise and desire in writing. A *vijjā* or magic formula appears in the peculiar manner of each consonant having the virāma and being followed by the respective vowel akṣara (e.g. *t+u* instead of *tu*). In the Canon the Mahānisīha is the only representative² and thus goes conform with the Angacūliyā, Āyāravihi, Vihimaggappavā and other texts of a decidedly later date. On principle the Stotras are directed to an Arhat, though other persons, among whom there are certain Hindu goddesses, receive veneration all the same. But an Arhat is far beyond the reach of human affairs. Being in the state of pure cognition exclusively and without both sentiment and will, he cannot bestow grace and favour unto those who appeal to him. Hindu influence seems to have been at work in placing at his side two adjutants, one male (*yakṣa*) and one female (*yakṣī, yakṣiṇī*), the former presumably being not more than the shadow of the latter³. And it is these two that take care of a devout supplicant. That, on a large scale, Hindu mythology was adopted by the Jains and brought in accord with their own principles is a fact known too well that it should be treated here in detail. The remarkable process of making out of a Bodhisattva a Roman Catholic Saint¹ finds its not less remarkable counterpart in the Jain ability of transforming epic heroes and other individuals into venerable persons of their own creed. The difference is that the said process in the West, thanks to translating a wandering subject into many languages, was unconscious, while the Jains with conscious energy satisfied their pious requirements at home.

Linked texts (7)

Epigraphia Indica
Kalpasūtra — Bhadrabāhu, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Uvāsagadasāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Abhidhānacintāmaṇi — Hemacandra, Sanskrit
Dharmaparīkṣā — Amitagati, Sanskrit
Citrasenapadmāvatīcaritra (Rājavallabha Pāṭhaka) — Rājavallabha Pāṭhaka 1555, Sanskrit
Tattvārthasūtra — Umāsvāti, Sanskrit