The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c6.95

c6.95

§20. As to Mahāvīra's success as a teacher Jiṇac. 134 provides us with monumental figures which we can leave as they are. The only point worth mentioning is that women are by far in the majority. The nuns were headed by Ajja-Candaṇā also referred to by Viy. 458b where it tells us of Mahāvīra introducing his mother Devāṇandā to her. The monk very rightly mentioned as the first was Indabhūi, better known by his Gotra name as Goyama, though sporadically we hear of a "second" and a "third" Gautama, Aggibhūi and Vāubhūi². Since, acc. to Viy. 153 a, they all appear simultaneously it is likely that Therāv. 1 by denoting all three as oldest, second and youngest monk of Mahāvīra was lead by a desire for classification. As one putting questions to his master Goyama as compared with a number of other persons is by far the most important, and as such he appears even where, as is the case in the Viy., there is no longer any real dialogue thinkable or probable, but where question and answer have come to congeal into mere forms of style³. In Viy. 755a, however, Goyama appears as a living person where we are told of his having wiped the floor with an antagonist and of his being commended for his ready wit by Mahāvīra who, acc. to Viy. 646b, also informs him that they both had been friends already for a number of existences. These two passages are probably the only ones in the Canon reflecting something like the note of a personal feeling on Mahāvīra's side. For as well as always he remains impersonal, and even where he rejects contradicting—often rather foolish—teachings of other preachers (annautthiya), he does so by speaking in naked antithesis. It was probably in his nature to be non-committal and stern⁴. Though it were wrong to judge Mahāvīra merely by how he appears to us in the dialogues of the Canon. He would never have been able to succeed without giving his words a touch of originality and power, and his oratorical gift is certain to have excelled the high measure customary in India by far. He is said to have spoken Ardhamāgadhī¹, that is to say Old AMg., an idiom prior to the language of our texts². Traces of the diction characteristic of him can clearly be demonstrated.³ In this connexion we have to mention the similes. We have a large quantity of them in the Thāṇ., esp. in Thāṇa 4, and we shall refer to them later in § 116. In them Mahāvīra renders proof of his extensive practical experience and of both his profound knowledge of the world and of human nature, and had they been handed down to us in an oratorical form, the Canon of the Jains would certainly not be inferior to that of the Buddhists aesthetically⁴.