198 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. lest they should kill an insect,* * * § * * In Surat a richly endowed hospital exists in whioh sick and disabled animals are nursed with the same care as if they were men.f Fourthly, the Jainas, following the example of the Bauddhas, have invented monstrous pe¬ riods, and have in this respect even excelled their predecessors. Their larger periods are called Avasarpim and Utsarpim ; each contains 2,000,000,000,000 years.J Another period has obtained the name sdgara or sea, and consists of 1,000,000,000,000,000 years. Each of the two periods is divided into six small¬ er periods; in the first the happiness, dura¬ tion of life, stature, &c. of men continually decreases until they descend to the lowest de* gree of misery, and during the period called utsarpim gradually again reach the highest de¬ gree of perfection. These periods the Jainas have partly filled out with the stories of the ancient epio dynasties of the Pandavas, of Krishna, and of Prasenajit, a king of Sravastl famed in the oldest Buddhist history, where in they have sometimes indulged in unimportant alterations of the usual accounts.§ In a similar manAr tho Buddhists have re¬ modelled the history of the ancient Sfirya- v a m s a or solar race; they plaoe King M a h a• 6 a m m a t a at the head of the first large period of the world, and allow after him 28 dynasties to reign in various parts of Upper India down tolkshvaku; these periods are called Asankyeya, i. e. numberless, and from those dynasties the later ones are deriyed ; from M a - fiasammata to Ikshvaku 252,539 or perhaps 140,3Q0 successors are counted.|| These agreements between the Jainas and the Bauddhas will suffice to establish the point thaUthe former have branched off from the lat¬ ter. Their deviations from their predecessors are chiefly in the domains of philosophy and
- Accordingly an English physician did a very unwel¬
come service to a Y-ati by convincing him by means of a mi¬ croscope that he was, in spite of this precaution, killing invisible anupalculoQ. t There are similar institutions in Bombay, Bharoch, and elsewhere.—Ed. J Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, II. p. 276 seqq. These data are taken from the Abhidhftnachint&mqni of Hemachan- dra, and occur in the edition of O. Boehtlingk and Rieu. II. v. 1G2 seqq. p. 15. Avasarpint, “ down-stepping,” ana Utisarpmt, “ up-stepping; ” these expressions refer pro¬ bably to the decrease and increase of happiness during these periods. [See also above, p. 135.] § This appears from extracts of the Satrunjaya/mA- hAtmya by A. Weber, passim, p. 26, p. 31 seqq- and p. 35 [July, 1873. of cosmography, with which their system of gods is most closely connected. But before considering these differences between the Jainas and the Bauddhas, I consider it proper to insert a brief report on the literature of the former, because from this it will appear that in this respect the Jainas have attached themselves to the Brahmans. The Jainas possess a number of Purdnas, which chiefly contain legends of the Tirthaii• karas, and present only exceptionally such as occur in Brahmanic writings of the same name. The most important work is attributed to the Jina Suri Acharya, whose age cannot be determined quite accurately; the statement that he was a contemporary of King Vikrama- ditya is worthless, because the origin of the Jaina doctrine cannot be pushed so far back, The tradition said to be current in Southern India makes the author with greater propri ty to have been the spiritual preceptor of Prince Amoghavarsht^, who resided at Kanchi during the sixth century. As this kind of works does not exist among Bfuddhists, the Jainas have borrowed the title and one of the subjects of these writings from the Brahmans.* The books called Siddhdnta and Agama partly take the place of the Vedas of the Brah¬ mans, whioh the Jainas as well as the Baud¬ dhas despise. The first title, as is well known, designates a book of instruction, wherein a scientific system, especially an astronomical one, is demonstrated by arguments.t The title Agama means also, among Brahmans, doctrines or instructions which have come down by tradi¬ tion.; among Buddhists four collections of writ-? ings, which, according to the correct conception, relate to the Sutras, and treat of discipline and cognate subjects, qre also called by this name.J* The three significations attributed to this title coincide in the general traditional doctrine or seqq. From tbe mention by Hem ach an dr a, III. v. 625 seqq. p. 127 seqq., of Dasaratha, of his son Rfima and his foe, of the giant-king R & v a n a, of the other enemies of Vishnu, as well as of several kings of the old Sfirya- vamFa or solar race, the conclusion may be drawn that in other writings also of the Jainas, the history of this dynasty is narrated. || See the references to this, Ind. Alt. I, p. 478, note 1. If Of the literature of the Jainas, Wilson has treated most in detail, As. Res. Xyil. p. 240 seqq. • A similar kind of writings are the Charitaras, in which legends and upraculous histories of the Ttrthan- karas are narrated. ♦ See on this, Ind. Alt. II. p. 1130 seqq. I See Ind. Alt. IV. p. 643 and note 1.
