The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c5.63

c5.63

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.