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IV.
JAINISM.
Canonical literature of the Jainas as yet little known.— Striking resemblance between Jainism and Buddhism : the Jinas and the mythology of the Jainas.— Cultus.— Rejection of the Veda and caste.— Clergy and lay community.— Chief divisions of the Jainas.— Asceticism, metaphysics, and moral system.— The Jina and the Buddha of the present age : the Nirvana of the Jina.— Uncertain character of Jaina tradition.— The Nirgrantha Jnatiputra.— Whatever the date of its origin, Jainism historically more recent than Buddhism.— Present condition of Jainism.
Before we proceed to the sects of new Brahmanism, we have still to speak of a religion closely allied to Buddhism, and one of the least known among those which have performed an important part in the past of India — the religion of the Jainas. ISTot that we are absolutely without documents bearing on the history and the doctrines of Jainism. We possess, among others, a manual of the twelfth century, the Yogasiitra,[1] which gives a summary of its morals ; the Kalpaslltra, a translation of a biography of its founder, which professes to date as far back as the sixth century;[2]
- ↑ E. Windisch, Hemacandra's Yogasutra, ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Jaina Lehre, in the Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Gesellsch., vol. xxviii. p. 185. L'Abhidhanacintamani, a lexicon, by the same author, of synonyms, edited by O. Boht-Imgk and Ch. Rieu, 1847, contains also a good deal of information in regard to the Jainas.
- ↑ Stevenson, The Kalpasutra and Nava Tatva, Two Works Illustrative of the Jaina Religion and Philosophy, translated from the Magadhi, 1848. A. Jacobi has since published the text of the first, with a learned introduction, The Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu, edited with an introduction, notes, and a Prakrit- Sanskrit glossary, 1879. The pretended author, Bhadrabahu, must have lived, according to the tradition of the Qvetambaras, in the fourth century B.C. ; but the redaction we have dates at most only from the commencement of the sixth century after our era. The Digambaras reject the Kalpa*-sutra as apocryphal. Seethe introduction of Jacobi, pp. 10 seq., 20 sea., 30.
