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THE RELIGIOUS QUEST OF INDIA

 

EDITED BY

J. N. FARQUHAR, M.A.
LITERARY SECRETARY, NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, INDIA AND CEYLON

AND

H. D. GRISWOLD, M.A., Ph.D
SECRETARY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

ALREADY PUBLISHED

INDIAN THEISM, FROM THE VEDIC TO THE MUḤAMMADAN PERIOD.

By Nicol Macnicol, M.A., D.Litt. Pp. xvi + 292. Price 6s. net.

IN PREPARATION

THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF INDIA.	By J. N. Farquhar, M.A.
THE RELIGION OF THE ṚIGVEDA.	By H. D. Griswold, M.A., Ph.D.
THE VEDĀNTA.	By A. G. Hogg, M.A., Christian College, Madras.
HINDU ETHICS.	By John McKenzie, M.A., Wilson College, Bombay.
BUDDHISM.	By K. J. Saunders, M.A., Literary Secretary, National Council of Y.M.C.A., India and Ceylon.
ISLAM IN INDIA.	By H. A. Walter, M.A., Literary Secretary, National Council of Y.M.C.A., India and Ceylon.

EDITORIAL PREFACE

The writers of this series of volumes on the variant forms of religious life in India are governed in their work by two impelling motives.

I. They endeavour to work in the sincere and sympathetic spirit of science. They desire to understand the perplexingly involved developments of thought and life in India and dispassionately to estimate their value. They recognize the futility of any such attempt to understand and evaluate, unless it is grounded in a thorough historical study of the phenomena investigated. In recognizing this fact they do no more than share what is common ground among all modern students of religion of any repute. But they also believe that it is necessary to set the practical side of each system in living relation to the beliefs and the literature, and that, in this regard, the close and direct contact which they have each had with Indian religious life ought to prove a source of valuable light. For, until a clear understanding has been gained of the practical influence exerted by the habits of worship, by the practice of the ascetic, devotional or occult discipline, by the social organization and by the family system, the real impact of the faith upon the life of the individual and the community cannot be estimated; and, without the advantage of extended personal intercourse, a trustworthy account of the religious experience of a community can scarcely be achieved by even the most careful student.

II. They seek to set each form of Indian religion by the side of Christianity in such a way that the relationship may stand out clear. Jesus Christ has become to them the light of all their seeing, and they believe Him destined to be the light of the world. They are persuaded that sooner or later the age-long quest of the Indian spirit for religious truth and power will find in Him at once its goal and a new starting-point, and they will be content if the preparation of this series contributes in the smallest degree to hasten this consummation. If there be readers to whom this motive is unwelcome, they may be reminded that no man approaches the study of a religion without religious convictions, either positive or negative: for both reader and writer, therefore, it is better that these should be explicitly stated at the outset. Moreover, even a complete lack of sympathy with the motive here acknowledged need not diminish a reader's interest in following an honest and careful attempt to bring the religions of India into comparison with the religion which to-day is their only possible rival, and to which they largely owe their present noticeable and significant revival.

It is possible that to some minds there may seem to be a measure of incompatibility between these two motives. The writers, however, feel otherwise. For them the second motive reinforces the first: for they have found that he who would lead others into a new faith must first of all understand the faith that is theirs already,—understand it, moreover, sympathetically, with a mind quick to note not its weaknesses alone but that in it which has enabled it to survive and has given it its power over the hearts of those who profess it.

The duty of the editors of the series is limited to seeing that the volumes are in general harmony with the principles here described. Each writer is alone responsible for the opinions expressed in his volume, whether in regard to Indian religions or to Christianity.

THE RELIGIOUS QUEST OF INDIA

THE

HEART OF JAINISM

BY

MRS. SINCLAIR STEVENSON
M.A., Sc.D. (Dublin)

OF THE IRISH MISSION IN GUJARĀT
SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF SOMERVILLE COLLEGE, OXFORD
AUTHOR OF ‘NOTES ON MODERN JAINISM’, ‘FIRST STEPS IN GUJARĀTĪ’
‘ON SOME PAINTERS OF THE RENAISSANCE’, ETC.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

BY THE

REV. G. P. TAYLOR, M.A., D.D.
PRINCIPAL OF STEVENSON COLLEGE, AḤMADĀBĀD

 

HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDONEDINBURGHGLASGOWNEW YORK
TORONTOMELBOURNEBOMBAY

1915

Fecisti nos ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te.

(Conf. Div. Aur. Augustini, i. 1.)

TO MY HUSBAND

WITH

HAPPY MEMORIES

OF

NINE YEARS' COMRADESHIP

IN WORK AND PLAY

PREFATORY NOTE

Amongst the many friends, Indian and English, whose help has made the production of this little book possible, the writer owes a special debt of gratitude to the Rev. G. P. Taylor, M.A., D.D., who years ago first directed her attention to Jainism as an almost untrodden field for research, and who ever since has allowed her to make the fullest use of his unrivalled stores of oriental scholarship; to Mr. J. N. Farquhar, M.A., from whom she has received constant help and suggestion, especially in the compilation of the Historical Summary and the paragraphs on Jaina writers; and to her husband, who, when she was hindered by illness, not only prepared the index, but also undertook, together with Mr. Farquhar, the whole of the proof correcting.

Amongst her Indian friends, the writer would like to thank two Jaina pandits, who successively lectured to her in Rājkot (Kāṭhiāwāḍ) almost daily during a period of seven years, for the patience and lucidity with which they expounded their creed. Each of these gentlemen, the one representing perhaps the more modern, and the other the more conservative, points of view, most kindly re-read the MS. with her.

In her study of Jainism, however, the writer is not only indebted to pandits, but also to nuns in various Apāsarā, to officiants in beautiful Jaina temples, to wandering monks, happy-go-lucky Jaina schoolboys and thoughtful students, as well as to grave Jaina merchants and their delightful wives. Nearly all these informants spoke Gujarātī, but the technical words they used in discussing their faith were sometimes of Gujarati, sometimes of Magadhi and sometimes of Sanskrit origin. This ' use ', which seems to be one of the idioms of Jainism, the writer has tried to reproduce by transliterating the actual words employed, believing that thus her work would retain more of the character of field-study and have less of the odour of midnight oil than if she had standardized and sanskritized all the terms.

But whatever language they spoke, every one whom the writer asked showed the same readiness to help; indeed almost every fact recorded in this book owes its presence there to the courtesy of some Jaina friend, and every page seems to the writer water-marked with some one's kindness. The difficulty of the task has sometimes seemed over- whelming; but never perhaps does the magnificent old motto Dominus illuminatio mea prove a greater inspiration than when one is attempting sympathetically to decipher an alien creed; and to no one does it, together with its sister-saying Magna est veritas et praevalebit, ring a happier carillon of hope than to the foreign missionary.

MARGARET STEVENSON.

Dublin,

St. Patrick's Day, 1915.

INTRODUCTION

To the general public Jainism is little more than a mere name, and even students of the Religions of India have often failed to give it the attention it well may claim. True, out of India's 315 millions less than one million and a quarter (1,248,162) to-day profess the Jaina faith, and the last twenty years have witnessed a steady decrease in the number of its adherents; but, its numerical weakness notwithstanding, Jainism can make its own distinct appeal for a more informed acquaintance with its special tenets. If Professor Hopkins is right, and we believe he is, in affirming that Jainism 'represents a theological mean between Brahmanism and Buddhism ',^[1] then assuredly a serious study of Jainism becomes incumbent on all who may seek to understand aright either the early Brahmanic ritual or the trenchant and for long effective Buddhist protest which that elaborate ritual evoked.

In that sixth century before Christ which in so many countries witnessed an earnest aspiration after higher truths and nobler lives, the country of Bihār was strangely agitated by the teachings of not a few bold reformers, men then styled heretics. Mahāvīra, Buddha, Gośāla, Jamāli, all founded sects of their own, and others there were who vied with these either in propounding rival heresies or in establishing separate monastic organizations. Yet of all these ancient Orders one only has survived in India down to the present day, and that one is the Jainism founded whether by Mahāvīra himself or by his reputed master Pāraśanātha. It were surely at once an interesting and an instructive study to search out the causes that enabled Jainism thus to weather the storms that in India wrecked so many of the other faiths. Quietly, unobtrusively, Jainism has held on the even tenor of its way: but why? Here, for the student of Comparative Religion, lies a fascinating problem. Dr. Hoernle's discussion of this subject in his Presidential Address of 1898 before the Asiatic Society of Bengal was singularly luminous, emphasizing as it did the place accorded from the very first to the lay adherent as an integral part of the Jaina organization. In the Buddhist Order, on the other hand, the lay element received no formal recognition whatsoever. Lacking thus any 'bond with the broad strata of the secular life of the people', Buddhism, under the fierce assault on its monastic settlements made by the Moslems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, proved incompetent to maintain itself and simply disappeared from the land. In contrast therewith, Jainism, less enterprising but more speculative than Buddhism, and lacking the active missionary spirit that in early times dominated the latter, has been content to spend a quiet life within comparatively narrow borders, and can show to-day in Western and Southern India not only prosperous monastic establishments but also lay communities, small perhaps, yet wealthy and influential. Adopting the terms of present-day ecclesiastical discussion, one may say the survival of the Jainas has been due in large measure to their having opened the doors of the Synod of their Church to lay representation.

Yet another reason that well may attract to the study of Jainism lies in the fact that a singular interest attaches to its doctrines and its history. Its first home was near Benares, and thus lay to the east of that 'holy land' which was the seat of the Vedic cult. But with the process of years it has migrated westwards and northwards, with the remarkable consequence that to-day 'there are no Jainas among the indigenous inhabitants of Bengal, which includes Bihār, where the religion had its origin, and Orissa, where the caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri bear witness to its popularity in the early centuries of our era'.^[2] While to the north in Mathurā, Delhi, Jaipur, and Ajmer, it is still fairly well represented, the chief seats of Jaina influence in modern times are the cities and trading marts of Western India. The mercantile communities of Gujarāt and Mārwār owe not a little of their prosperity to Jaina enterprise, and the Order is said to be largely recruited from the cultivators in the Carnatic district of Belgaum. To trace through the centuries this westward trend of Jainism and to investigate its causes were surely a subject worthy of engaging the attention of students of the Indian religions.

Again, in its origin, Jainism was a protest on the part of the Kṣatriyas, or warrior caste, against the exclusiveness of priests who desired to limit entry into the mendicant stage (Sannyāsin Āśrama) to persons of the Brahman caste alone. As Professor Hopkins graphically puts it, 'The Kings of the East were impatient of the Western Church: they were pleased to throw it over. The leaders in the "reformation" were the younger sons of noble blood . . . they were princes and had royalty to back them.'^[3] But time brings its revenges, and this Jaina religion, cradled in the aristocracy of a military caste, was destined to become the chief exponent of a grotesque exaggeration of the principle of ahiṅisā, or 'non-injury' to any living being. The explanation of a change so radical cannot but prove of the deepest interest.

Yet once again Jainism, with its explicit belief in a plurality of eternal spirits, every material entity having its own individual spirit, jīvātmā, no less expressly disbelieves in the Supreme Spirit, the Paramātmā. Jainism is definitely atheistic, if by atheism we mean the denial of a divine creative spirit. In the philosophy of the Jainas no place is reserved for God. Indeed it seems probable that the first Jainas did not acknowledge gods at all. They early taught that one should not say 'God rains', but just 'the cloud rains'. Thus one of their fundamental principles would seem to have been that there is no power higher than man. This principle, however, it is instructive to note, soon proved unworkable, and it has long since been practically abandoned. The Jainas do worship, yet are the objects of their worship neither God nor gods. Denying God, they worship man, to wit, the Venerable (Arhat), the Conqueror (Fina), the Founder of the (four) Orders (Tīrthaṅkara). Now this revolt from God-worship, and the acceptance in its stead of man-worship, this startling anticipation of Positivism, may well claim one's attention, if only as affording some idea of the possibilities of intel- lectual frailty.

Within the last thirty years a small band of scholars, pre-eminent amongst whom are the late Hofrath Professor Biihler, Professor Jacobi, and Dr. Hoernle, have effected a great advance in our knowledge of Jainism. For long it had been thought that Jainism was but a sub-sect of Buddhism, but, largely as a consequence of the researches of the Orientalists just mentioned, that opinion has been finally relinquished, and Jainism is now admitted to be one of the most ancient monastic organizations of India. So far from being merely a modern variation of Buddhism, Jainism is the older of the two heresies, and it is almost certain that Mahāvīra, though a contemporary of Buddha, predeceased him by some fifty years. ^[4] A flood of light has been shed on the origin of Jainism, on its relations both to Brahmanism and to Buddhism, on the sects of the Jainas, the ' white-clad ' and the ' space-clad ' votaries and the non-idolatrous Sthānakavāsīs, on the formation of the Jaina Siddhānta or Canon, and on the Councils of Pāṭaliputra and Vallabhi that legislated regarding the Jaina Scriptures: also the highest linguistic scholarship has been brought to bear upon translations of a few of the Sacred Books of the Jainas. For all this good work accomplished, students of Jainism cannot be too grateful. But one whole department of this large subject still awaits elucidation. One can learn much concerning early Jainism and of its development in mediaeval times: but modern Jainism, its present-day practices and its present-day teachings, these still remain very much a terra incognita. Bühler's Indian sect of the Jainas and an article by Dr. Burgess on the Jaina Temple Ritual tell us something, but very much remains untold. And just here a necessary caution should be given. It is not always safe to assume that the meaning a technical term bore in early times remains the same in the Jainism of to-day. For instance, the term Tīrtha-kara, or Tīrthaṅkara, would seem originally to have denoted the man who has ' made the passage ' across the ocean of worldly illusion (saṁsāra), who has reached that further shore where he is, and will for ever be, free from action and desire: thus, the man who has attained unto a state of utter and absolute quiescence, and has entered into a rest that knows no change nor ending, a passionless and ineffable peace. But no Jaina whom I have ever consulted has assigned this meaning to the word Tīrthaṅkara. Widely different is the explanation given me by those whom I have asked, and they all agree. A Tīrthaṅkara, they say, is one who has ' made ', has founded, the four ' tīrthas '. But what then is a tīrtha? Tīrtha, derived from the root tr, ' to save ', is, they affirm, a technical term indicating ' the means of salvation ', the means par excellence; and the ċaturvidha saṅgha, or that ' fourfold Communion' within which all who take refuge find ultimate salvation, consists of the four tīrthas, or ' orders ', namely, those of (1) sādhu or monk, (2) sādhvī or nun, (3) śrāvaka or lay-brother, and (4) śrāvikā or lay-sister. These four tīrthas are thus, as it were, four boats that will infallibly carry the passengers they bear unto the desired haven of deliverance (mokṣa). Hence the Tīrthaṅkara is one who is the Founder (with a very large F) of the four ' orders ' that collectively constitute the Communion or Saṅgha. Another illustration of a term whose meaning may have changed with time is Nirvāṇa. Originally the prefix nir, or nis, was held to be intensive, and hence nirvāṇa, from the root vā, ' to blow ', came to mean ' blown out, extinguished '. Thus, according to the early Jainas, Nirvāṇa is that state in which the energy of past actions (karma) has become extinguished, and henceforward the spirit (jīvātmā), though still existent as an individual spirit, escapes re-embodiment, and remains for ever free from new births and deaths. But nowadays some Jainas at least regard the prefix nir as a mere negative, and thus with them Nirvāṇa implies that state in which ' not a breath ' reaches the emancipated one. The underlying conception is that of a constant steady flame with ' never a breath ' to make even the slightest tremulous quiver. Evidently, then, the study of the Jainism of the past, helpful though it be, does not of itself alone suffice to acquaint one accurately with the current phases of that faith, and accordingly some account, more or less detailed, of modern Jainism becomes a distinct desideratum. It is in the hope of supplying this felt need that Dr. Margaret Stevenson has prepared the present volume. She has named it ' The Heart of Jainism ', and aptly so, for in the writing of it she has been careful to indicate not so much the causes that contributed to the origin and development of that religion as the conditions that now obtain in it, and its present-day observances. The life-blood that is coursing through its veins and is invigorating it, this she seeks to gauge. She would fain register, and not unsympathetically, its pulse-beats and its heart-throbs. For the execution of this self-imposed task Mrs. Stevenson has special qualifications. More than eight years ago, on her arrival as a bride in Aḥmadābād, she and her husband visited with me the large Jaina temple erected in this city so recently as 1848, through the munificence of Śeth Haṭṭhisiṁha. We were on that occasion conducted past the enclosing cloisters (bhamatī) with their fifty-two small shrines to the inner court, and then admitted to the temple itself, passing through first the open porch (maṇḍapa) and next the hall of assembly (sabhā maṇḍapa), till we stood on the very threshold of the adytum (gabhāro), and there we witnessed the ceremonial waving of lights (āratī). The pathos of this service and its sadness made a deep impression, and from that evening Mrs. Stevenson has been a keen and constant student of Jainism. Her knowledge of the Gujarātī language has enabled her to acquire much information at first hand both from the Jaina paṇḍits who have for years assisted her in her research-work, and from the vernacular text-books which have of late been issuing from the local printing-presses. Her kindly sympathies have won her many friends in the Jaina community, and have even procured her a welcome entrée into the seclusion of a Jaina nunnery. Time and again she has been present by invitation at Jaina functions seldom witnessed by any foreigner. Her long residence in Kāṭhiāwāḍ has afforded her opportunities for repeated visits to those marvellous clusters of stately temples that crown the holy hills of Girnār and Ābū and Śatruñjaya. In her admirable Notes on Modern Jainism, severely simple notes published five years ago, Mrs. Stevenson gave us a first instalment of the rich fruits of her patient research, but since then she has been able to glean a more abundant harvest. The contribution that she now offers to the public will prove simply invaluable to the Christian missionary and to the student of the religions of India, but we further bespeak for it a hearty welcome from all who delight in fine scholarship and literary grace.

Geo. P. Taylor.

Stevenson College,

Aḥmadābād.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
	Page
INTRODUCTORY	1
The ideal of Indian thought death, not life—Attraction of asceticism—Revolt against Brāhman exclusiveness—Rise of Buddhist and Jaina orders.
CHAPTER II
HISTORICAL SUMMARY	7
The sixth century—Mahāvīra—Order of Pārśvanātha—Sudharma and his successors—The great famine and consequent migration under Bhadrabāhu to Mysore—Sthūlabhadra and the Council of Pāṭaliputra—The Canon of Scriptures—The nudity question—Idolatry—Suhastin—Disruption into Śvetāmbara and Digambara sects—Council of Vallabhi—The Scriptures—Zenith of Jainism—Decline under Mohammedan and Śaiva persecution—Rise of Sthānakavāsī sect—Modern conditions.
CHAPTER III
THE LIFE OF MAHĀVĪRA	21
Birthplace—The fourteen dreams—Birth—Childhood legends—Initiation—Pārśvanātha's Order—Legends of Mahāvīra's asceticism—Enlightenment— Preaching—Death—Previous incarnations.
CHAPTER IV
MAHĀVĪRA'S PREDECESSORS AND DISCIPLES	48
Pārśvanātha—The Four Vows of Pārśvanātha—The twenty-two earlier Tirthaṅkara:—Ṛiṣabhadeva—Ajitanātha—Sambhavanātha—Abhinandana—Sumatinātha—Padmaprabhu—Supārśvanātha—Ċandraprabhu—Suvidhinātha—Śitaḷanātha—Śreyāṁsanātha—Vāsupūjya—Vimaḷanātha—Anantanātha—Dharmanātha—Śāntinātha—Kunthunātha—Aranātha—Mallinātha—Munisuvrata—Naminātha—Neminātha—The Followers of Mahāvīra:—Gośāla—Gautama Indrabhūti—Sermon by Mahāvīra—Sudharma.
CHAPTER V
HISTORY OF THE JAINA COMMUNITY	65
The four Tīrtha:—Monks—Nuns—Laymen—Laywomen—The great leaders:—Jambū Svāmī—Prabhava—Śayambhava—Bhadrabāhu— Sthūlabhadra—The six Śrutakevalī—The Daśapūrvī—The early Schisms:—Jamālī's—Gośāla's—Avyakta, Kṣaṇikavādī, and Gaṅga schisms—Mahāgiri—Samprati—Suhastin—Susthitasūri—Indradinna—Kalikāċārya—Siddhasena Divākara—Vajrasvāmī—Vajrasena—Digambara schism—Differences between Śvetāmbara and Digambara—Haribhadra Sūri—Siddhasūri—Śīlaguṇasūri—Bappabhaṭṭīsūri—Śīlaṅgāċārya—Abhayadevasūri—Hemāċārya—Epigraphic Corroboration—The later sects—Non-idolatrous sects: Loṅkā—Sthānakavāsī.
CHAPTER VI
INTRODUCTION TO JAINA PHILOSOPHY	89
Origin of Jaina ideas—The Sāṅkhya and Vedānta schools—The Saptabhaṅgī Naya.
CHAPTER VII
THE NINE CATEGORIES OF FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS	94
i. JĪVA (94): Prāṇa—Divisions of Jīva: into Siddha and Saṁsārī—Male, Female and Neuter—Hell-beings, Animals, Human beings and Gods—Ekendriya, Be-indriya, Tri-indriya, Ċorendriya and Pañċendriya—Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, Vanaspatikāya and Trasakāya—Two artificial divisions—Leśyā division—Paryāpti division. ii. AJĪVA (106): Arūpī: (Dharmāstikāya—Adharmāstikāya—Ākāśāstikāya—Kāla)—Rūpī: (Pudgaḷāstikāya). iii. MERIT (110): Nine kinds (giving food, drink, clothes, lodging and bed; good wishes, kind acts, kind words and reverence)—Forty-two ways of enjoying the fruit of Merit. iv. SIN (116): Eighteen kinds (killing, untruth, stinginess, impurity, acquisitiveness, anger, pride, deceit, greed, attachment, hatred, quarrelsomeness, slander, tale-bearing, criticism, lack of self-control, hypocrisy, false faith)—Eighty-two results of Sin. v. ĀŚRAVA (Channels of Karma) (139): Seventeen major and twenty-five minor. vi. SAṀVARA (Impeding of Karma) (144): Five points of good behaviour (Samiti)—Control of mind, speech and body (Gupti)—Twenty-two ways of enduring hardship (Parīṣaha)—Ten duties of Ascetics—Five Rules of Conduct (Cāritra)—Twelve important Reflections (Bhāvanā). vii. BONDAGE to Karma (161): Four kinds. viii. DESTRUCTION of Karma (163): Six Exterior Austerities—Six Interior Austerities. ix. MOKṢA (169): the Siddha—Final Bliss.
CHAPTER VIII
KARMA AND THE PATH TO LIBERATION	173
Four Sources of Karma—Nine ways of arresting Karma—Eight kinds of Karma—their arrangement—Ghātin and Aghātin—Three tenses of Karma—Fourteen steps to Liberation.
CHAPTER IX
THE LIFE STORY OF A JAINA	193
Babyhood and birth-ceremonies—Betrothal and marriage ceremonies—The first child—Death and funeral ceremonies.
CHAPTER X
THE JAINA LAYMAN AND HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE	205
The Twelve Lay Vows: Five Anuvrata (against killing, falsehood, dishonesty, unchastity and covetousness)—Three Strengthening Vows (limiting travel and use of possessions and guarding against abuses)—Four Vows of Religious Observances—How the vows are taken—Santhāro (Religious suicide)—The eleven Pratimā—The perfect gentleman.
CHAPTER XI
THE JAINA ASCETIC	225
Initiation—Daily duties—Begging—Confession—Leisure—Study—Nuns—Gorajī—The Five Great Vows: (Non-killing—Truth—Honesty—Chastity—Detachment)—No meals after sundown—The ideal monk.
CHAPTER XII
THE END OF THE ROAD	239
The Five Great Ones: (Sādhu—Upādhyāya—Āċārya—Tīrthaṅkara—Siddha)—Rules by which even non-Jaina may reach Mokṣa—The Three Jewels—The Three Evil Darts.
CHAPTER XIII
JAINA WORSHIP AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS	250
Temple worship (Digambara and Śvetāmbara)—Private worship—Jaina holy days—Pajjusaṇa—Saṁvatsarī—Divālī—Full-moon fasts—Dusting day—the Eleventh—Saint-wheel worship—Days of Abstinence—Consecration of an idol—Śrāvaṇa Belgolā festival—Oḷi—Hindu festivals—Śrāddha—Superstitions: Evil eye—Demons and ghosts—Plague and Small-pox—Childless women.
CHAPTER XIV
JAINA MYTHOLOGY	268
Gods in Hell and Pātāla—Gods in Heaven—Divisions of time: Avasarpiṇī and Utsarpiṇī—The twenty-four Tīrthaṅkara to come.
CHAPTER XV
JAINA ARCHITECTURE AND LITERATURE	279
Wooden buildings—Stūpa—Cave-temples—The golden age of architecture—The shadow of Islām—Modern architecture—Architecture of the South—Jaina writers—Hemaċandra—Modern literature.
CHAPTER XVI
THE EMPTY HEART OF JAINISM	289
Attraction of Christ for the Jaina—Dissatisfaction with inadequate ideals—The problem of pain—Mahāvīra and Christ—The lack of Jainism—No Supreme God—No forgiveness—No prayer—No brotherhood of man—Difference in ideas of Heaven—Karma and Transmigration—Ahiṁsā and service—Ethics—Personality and Life—The empty Throne.
APPENDIX
I. Analysis of the Nine Categories	299
II. The Twenty-four Tīrthaṅkara of the Present Age	312
INDEX	314

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Barodia, U. D., History and Literature of Jainism, Bombay, 1909.
• Benārsi Dāss, Lāla, Lecture on Jainism, Agra, 1902.
• Bhandarkar, R. G., Report on the Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bombay Presidency during the year 1883–4, Bombay, 1887.
• Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix, part I.
• Bühler, J. G., On the Indian Sect of the Jainas (translated and edited with an outline of Jaina mythology by J. Burgess), London, 1903.
• —— Ueber das Leben des Jaina-Mönches Hemachandra, Vienna, 1889.
• Colebrooke, H. T., Miscellaneous Essays, vol. ii, London, 1873.
• Crooke, W., Article on Indian Religions in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. i, Oxford, 1909.
• De Milloué, Essai sur la religion des Jains, Le Muséon, Louvain, 1884.
• Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (E.R.E.): articles on Jaina topics.
• Girnāra Māhātmya (in Gujarātī).
• Guérinot, A. A., Essai de bibliographie jaina, Paris, 1906.
• Hoernle, A. F. R., Annual Address, Asiatic Society of Bengal (A.S.B.), Calcutta, 1898.
• —— Uvāsagadasāo, Calcutta, 1890.
• Hopkins, E. W., The Religions of India, Boston, 1895.
• Jacobi, H., Sacred Books of the East (S.B.E.), vols. xxii and xlv.
• —— The Metaphysics and Ethics of the Jainas (Transactions of the Congress for the History of Religion), Oxford, 1908.
• —— Edition of Heuiaċandra's Pariśiṣṭa Parvan (Bibl. Ind.), Calcutta, 1891.
• Jaina Dharma Praveśa Pothī Series, Ahmadābād, 1907 (in Gujarati).
• Jaini, Manak Chand, Life of Mahāvīra, Allahabad, 1908.
• Jhaveri, J. L., First Principles of Jaina Philosophy, Bombay, 1912.
• Latthe, A. B., An Introduction to Jainism, Bombay, 1905.
• 'Seeker', Notes on the Sthanaktvasi or the non-Idoatrous Shwetambar Jains, India, 1911.
• Shāh, Popatlāl K., Jaina Dharma Nirūpaṇa (in Gujarātī). xxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smith, Vincent A., The Early Hisio^y of India (third edition), Oxford, 1914. Stevenson, Rev. J., Nava Taiva, London, 1848. Stevenson, Mrs. Sinclair, Notes on Moderft Jamisiii, Oxford, 1910. Weber, A., Sacred Literature of the Jainas (tr,), Indian Antiquary (I. A.), xvii(i888)-xxi (1892). Jaina Architecture and Archaeology. Bijhler, J. G. Specitnetis of Jaifta Setdftures frojn Mathurd, Epi- graphia Indica, i (1892) and ii (1894). Burgess, J., Digatnbara Jaina Iconograp/iy, I. A., xxxii (1903). Fergusson, J., History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (new edition), London, 1910. Fergusson, J., and J. Burgess, Cave Temples, London, 1880. Guerinot, A. A., Repet'toire d'epigraphie jaina, Paris, 1908. Smith, Vincent A., A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon,

Oxford, 191 1.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The desire of India is to be freed from the cycle of rebirths, and the dread of India is reincarnation. The rest that most of the spiritual seek through their faith is a state of profound and deathlike trance, in which all their powers shall have ceased to move or live, and from which they shall never again be awakened to undergo rebirth in this toilsome and troubled world.

If, therefore, we would try reverently and sympathetically to grasp the inner meaning of an Indian faith, we must put aside all thought of the perfectly developed personality which is our ideal, and of the joy and zest that come from progress made and powers exercised, and, turning our thoughts backwards, face for a while another goal, in which death, not life, is the prize, cessation not development the ideal.

In Indian religions as in ours asceticism has its place, but we must remember the different connotation which that word bears to Indian minds. To the Christian, asceticism is only a means to an end, the eager, glad decision of the athlete to refuse the lower, if it clash with the higher, good. Far different is the Indian ideal, for in India asceticism has been born of fear, fear of future rebirths no less than of present ills. To Indian thinkers asceticism is the beginning in this life of the cessation they crave, and their hope is that thus one by one their powers and talents, with all that leads to and results from action, may drop off, burnt away in the glow of austerity, till only a stump of character remains, from which the soul may easily free itself. The unused gifts shrivel up the quicker if their owner be a professed ascetic, for the more limited the sympathies and the fewer sides of life a mortal touches, the better. All that makes for colour and vividness and joy in life must be sacrificed, and if through voluntary starvation life itself should go, the less risk is there of doing those actions which involve reincarnation.

To men believing thus, the life of the professed ascetic offered irresistible attractions. As such they were cut off from wife and child, and from all the labours and keen joys and sorrows these entail; clothing, food, or shelter need not claim their thought or work; houseless and effortless they might wander at will through a land of hospitality and sunshine.

To understand the creeds of India one must, of course, remember its climate: over a large part of the country, except during the rainy season, when ascetics suspend their wanderings, it is always fine: no drenching rain and (in the greater part of India) no biting frost compel men to provide themselves with houses or fires. The intense heat discourages exertion and robs men of energy, till rest seems the greatest bliss and meditation an alluring duty. And then, as we know only too well, the influence of the climate breeds pessimism eventually in the blithest European or Indian. In the east death and disease come with such tragic swiftness, and famine and pestilence with such horrifying frequency, that the fewer hostages one has given to fortune, the happier is one’s lot.^[5] To the poor and unaided in ancient India justice was unknown and life and property but ill secured, just as we may see in many native states to this day. All these influences, creed, climate, pessimism and injustice, pressed men more and more towards the pathway of the professed ascetic’s life; but the door of this pathway was barred more and more firmly as time went on to every qualification but that of birth. Unless a man had been born a Brāhman,^[6] he must remain in all the hurry, sorrow and discontent of the world, until his life’s end; but to a Brāhman the way of escape was always open; he must pass through the four Āśrama (or stages), and having been successively a student, a householder, and a hermit, spend the remaining years of his life as a wandering mendicant.

There must have been constant revolts against the exclusiveness that so selfishly barred the door to other castes, and echoes more or less clear of such revolts have come down to us, but only two were really permanent—the revolt of the Buddhists and the revolt of the Jaina. The Buddhists are scarcely found any longer in India proper, but the Jaina exist as an influential and wealthy community of laymen who support a large body of ascetics, the only example of the early mediaeval monastic orders of India which has survived to our day.

Both Buddhist and Jaina orders arose about the same time, the sixth century B.C., a period when the constant wars between various little kingdoms must have made the lot of the common people hideous with suffering and oppression; and a man might well have longed to escape from all fear of rebirth into such a sorrowful world, and have hoped, by renouncing everything that could be taken from him, and by voluntarily stripping himself of all possessions and all emotions, to evade the avaricious fingers of king or fortune.^[7]

About this time, too, a wave of religious feeling was making itself felt in various parts of the world, and India has always been peculiarly susceptible to psychic emotions. The fact of being debarred from entering the ascetic life through the recognized stages and of being treated as in every way inferior was naturally most keenly felt by those in the caste next below the Brāhmans, the clever, critical Kṣatriya,^[8] and it is from the ranks of these that the Jaina as well as the Buddhist reformers sprang.

Sacrifice was another occasion of quarrelling between the two castes. The Kṣatriya claimed that in old days they had been allowed to take part with the Brāhmans in the sacrifices from which they were now shut out; but the whole feeling about sacrifice was altering. As the Aryan invaders settled down in India, they grafted on to their original faith much from the darker creeds belonging to the lands and people they conquered, and gradually lost the child-like joy of the earlier Vedic times. The faith of the woodland peoples inspired them with the idea that all things—animals, insects, leaves and clods—were possessed of souls; and this, together with the growing weight of their belief in transmigration, gave them a shrinking horror of taking life in any form, whether in sacrifice^[9] or sport, lest the blood of the slain should chain them still more firmly to the wheel of rebirth. So they came to dislike both the creed and the pretensions of their own priests, and the times were indeed ripe for revolt.

The Brāhmans declared that their supremacy and their sacrifices were based on the Vedas, so the authority of the Vedas was denied by the new thinkers. The Brāhmans claimed that the four castes had been created from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of the Creator, thus ensuring the supremacy of that caste which had issued from the highest portion, i.e. the Brāhmans who came from the god’s mouth. So the reformers proceeded to deny the existence of a creator, feeling that, if that creator had existed, not only would he be responsible for the superiority of the Brāhmans but also for all the sorrows that darkened existence.

From the birth-story of their great founder one school of reformers—the Jaina—proved that it was a greater honour to be born of a Kṣatriya than of a Brāhman mother. Indeed all through the Jaina sacred books one comes across traces of this antagonism to Brāhmans and to Brāhmanic practices such as bathing,^[10] divination,^[11] &c., and one whole chapter, ‘The True Sacrifice’,^[12] is directly written against them.

The Brāhmanic ascetic had to pass through four stages, but once the door of asceticism was forced open by rebels like the Jaina, it was opened as widely as possible, and the postulant was allowed to leap the intervening stages and become a wandering mendicant at once, if he so willed.

Having declared against birth exclusiveness, the Jaina were bound to find some other hall-mark of worth, and for this purpose they laid stress on karma. A man’s karma^[13]—his actions—not his caste, they declared, was of supreme importance, but from this position they have since backslidden, as they themselves lament, and it rests with the Jaina of to-day to free themselves from the shackles of caste which they have allowed to rebind them, and once more to restate this fundamental tenet of their creed.

It must always be remembered that Jainism, though a rebellious daughter, is none the less a daughter of Brāhmanism, many of whose leading beliefs are still held by the Jaina, while much of their worship exactly resembles Hindu worship, and their domestic chaplains, though not their temple officiants, are still Brāhmans; in fact both faiths must be studied if Jainism is to be understood. One might even suggest that one of the easiest approaches to the study of the boundless creed of Hinduism would be through the study of its more clearly defined and less nebulous offspring, Jainism.

CHAPTER II

HISTORICAL SUMMARY

Early Indian history as yet resembles those maps of our grandfathers in which

Geographers for lack of towns
Drew elephants on pathless downs.

The genius of the people of India does not lie in historical research: to them metaphysical thought is the chief end of man, and they are content to leave to Western scholars the task of filling in the large gaps of unexplored country in their history. It is the misfortune of Jainism that so much of its life-story falls within these unexplored tracts of time, and, though the Jaina have kept historical records of their own, it is very difficult to correlate these records with known facts in the world's history.

Modern research seems to have proved that this great monastic fraternity arose at the end of the sixth century B.C., and one of its great claims to interest lies in the fact that enshrined in its rules and precepts it has, like some slow moving glacier, brought down to this materialistic century the thoughts of a time when men, ignoring the present, were ready to stake their all on a future life. Originating amongst a people whose trade was war, it has laid greater emphasis on the duty of mercy and the evils of killing than any sect save the Friends; its founder was an aristocrat, but it has met with greatest acceptance amongst the middle classes; and though an unworldly faith, whose highest precept it is to discard all wealth as dross, it has nevertheless won its adherents from a class famed throughout India for their love of gain and their reluctance to part with money, and induced these close-fisted merchants to support out of their largesse a large body of religious mendicants. Indeed it would be impossible to imagine any creed or rule of conduct which, prima facie, would seem so little likely to appeal to a constituency of cautious, middle-class bankers and shopkeepers. Yet even to-day Jaina men and women are renouncing everything for the sake of an idea with a heroism that has all the romance of the early Rajput days, when kings and nobles vied with one another to enter the order; and to this wealth of devotion, this still surviving power of renunciation, the religion of the Cross must eventually make a victorious appeal.

It may make for clearness to state quite baldly the few facts which we do know about Jaina history, taking, as it were, a bird’s-eye glance over it from a European standpoint, before we look at it from the Jaina point of view.

Mahāvīra, the great hero of the Jaina, was born the second son of a Kṣatriya chieftain, in Magadha (the modern Bihār), then the most powerful state in India. According to Jaina tradition, he was born in 599 and died in 527 b.c.^[14] Many modern scholars think these dates are somewhat too early, and are inclined to place his death about the beginning of the fifth century, but absolute certainty is not yet attainable. When he was thirty years of age, he entered a previously established order, that of Pārśvanātha, but left it after twelve months and spent the following eleven years in preaching his Law of Renunciation, albeit with little acceptance. Then came the high tide of success, and during the last thirty years of his life men and women from the lands east of ‘the middle country’ crowded into his order. His adherents were drawn chiefly from the Kṣatriya aristocracy, with whom he was connected through his mother by ties of kinship. The great ascetic proceeded to organize all his followers into a regular community containing lay as well as monastic members of both sexes; and at his death it contained more than 14,000 monks.

Under Mahāvīra’s influence members of two differing opinions had joined the order, those who held with the great leader that the complete abandonment of possessions involved the giving up of all clothing, and also members of another and earlier order, that of Pārśvanātha, who felt that some covering was a necessity and stopped short of this extreme of Renunciation. For long after the founder’s death the sections cohered together, and the genius of Mahāvīra in adapting his order to the need of the times was shown in the numbers of harassed men and women who crowded into it, finding in the renunciation of all things—property, affections and emotions—the surest refuge from the trials and changes of this mortal life.

The Jaina sometimes speak of Mahāvīra’s order as a protest against caste exclusiveness as such, but some European scholars hold that it was rather a protest of Kṣatriya against Brāhman; and the present practices of the Jaina community would seem to uphold this view, for the modern Jaina is as fast bound as his Hindu brother in the iron fetters of caste.

But, whatever its origin may have been, the order after the death of Mahāvīra continued to flourish under the rule of the great ascetic’s disciple, Sudharma, and his successors, as we shall learn from our study of Jaina legends and history.

Unlike Buddhism, Jainism has never spread beyond the borders of India. A religion which, by its very nature, is one of intense individualism, feels little responsibility for another’s soul and spends its energy on saving itself, is not likely to spread rapidly or far; yet, as we shall see, Jainism did gradually extend over the whole of India.

In particular it is plain that it found its way into Mysore and the Tamil country at a very early date. We shall study later the literary and artistic results of the predominance of this religion in the south during the early centuries of the Christian era. The following tradition is given by Jaina authorities as the reason for this early transplanting of the faith to such a distance. There is no conclusive evidence of the truth of the narrative, and some modern scholars think it a pure invention; yet it links itself so closely and naturally to later facts, that it is safer to say that it is probably, though not certainly, historic.

Some two centuries after Mahāvīra’s death, according to this story, a terrible famine visited Magadha, which had been the scene of his labours. Year after year the monsoon, on which the fertility of the land depends, failed, until at length all the accumulated stores of grain were consumed, and it became apparent that the country had no longer any superfluity, out of which to provide for a large body of mendicants. Accordingly half the community, under the leadership of Bhadrabāhu, moved off towards the south and settled in Mysore; and as the famine lasted for twelve years, they were able to establish their faith in all that region. We are also told that the emigrants were accompanied to Mysore by Ċandragupta, the first Emperor of India, and founder of the Maurya Dynasty, whom the Jaina claim as a co-religionist. They add that he committed religious suicide by self-starvation at Śrāvaṇa Belgolā. If the tradition is trustworthy, the date of the migration must be placed c. 298 or 296 b.c., for Bindusāra succeeded Ċandragupta about that time.

This period is perhaps the most important in Jaina history; for not only did it lead to the establishment of Jainism in the south, but it is also the time of the fixing of the earliest canon of Jaina scripture.

Tradition says that all the monks did not migrate to the south; some, under the leadership of Sthūlabhadra, preferred to cling at any risk to the hallowed scenes of their Holy Land. It was perhaps easier for the minority to carry things through than it would have been for the whole unwieldy body; or it may have been that the death of many of their members through famine warned their leaders on how precarious a footing the memoriter knowledge of their sacred books stood. However this may be, Sthūlabhadra summoned a council of monks early in the third century b.c. at Pāṭaliputra, the modern Patna, a place historic in the annals of their order and at that time the capital of the Maurya Empire. This council fixed the canon of the Jaina sacred literature, consisting of the eleven Aṅga and the fourteen Pūrva. It seems likely that the books were not committed to writing at this time, but were still preserved in the memories of the monks. The action of the council would thus be limited to settling what treatises were authoritative. Unfortunately, as we shall see later, the sects do not quite agree as to what is meant by the eleven Aṅga and the fourteen Pūrva, so that the work of the famous council of Pāṭaliputra did not carry the weight which Sthūlabhadra hoped it would have done.

During this period not only was Jainism established in the south and the canon of the Scriptures fixed in the north, but also the famous clothes-versus-nudity question was raised, never again to be laid. We are told that, when at last the famine was over and the real head of the order, Bhadrābahu or his successor, could bring some of his travelled mendicants back from the south to the original home of their order, he found that the home-keeping minority had all adopted some form of clothing; and, though the actual schism did not take place until two more centuries had passed, the unity of the order was lost for ever, and any whole-hearted agreement on such a question as the canon of their scriptures was never again possible.

As the Jaina laity had been drawn away from Hinduism by their adhesion to Mahāvīra, they were left without any stated worship. Gradually, however, reverence for their master and for other teachers, historical and mythical, passed into adoration and took the form of a regular cult. Finally, images of these adored personages were set up for worship, and idolatry became one of the chief institutions of orthodox Jainism. The process was precisely parallel to what happened in Buddhism. It is not known when idols were introduced, but it was probably in the second or first century b.c.

The third and second centuries b.c. must have been a period of great activity amongst the Jaina. Under Aśoka the religion is said to have been introduced into Kashmir. Under Suhastin, the great ecclesiastical head of the order in the second century, Jainism received many marks of approbation from Samprati, grandson of Aśoka. Inscriptions show that it was already very powerful in Orissa in the second century and in Mathurā in the north-west in the first century b.c. The history is not known in detail, but it is clear that after the Christian era the faith spread over the whole of the west and rose to great prominence and power in Gujarāt. We have also evidence of its activity in most parts of Southern India during the first millenium of the Christian era.

The next important event in Jaina history is the great schism and the final division into Śvetāmbara (white-clothed) and Digambara (atmosphere-clad, i.e. nude) sects which took place in a.d. 79 or 82. The Jaina have many legends to account for the division taking place when it did; but, whatever the reason, the depth of the cleavage between the two parties is shown by the fact that nowadays every sect adds after its own particular designation the name of one of these two great parties to which it adheres. For instance, the members of hte modern non-idolatrous sect, the Sthānakavāsī, call themselves Sthānakavāsī Śvetāmbara, though it would seem to us that in having no idols they differ from the Śvetāmbara far more than the Śvetāmbara differ from the Digambara.

In the meantime the sacred literature of the Jaina was in a thoroughly unsatisfactory state, and was in real danger of being entirely lost. Owing to the conversion or patronage of western kings the centre of Jainism was gradually changing from Bihār to Gujarāt, and so when the great council of a.d. 454^[15] came together, it was summoned not in the historic land of Magadha but in the western country won for the Jaina faith by missionary effort. The place chosen was Vallabhi, near Bhāvnagar, and the president of the council was Devarddhi. So far the Śvetāmbara and Sthānakavāsī sects concur, though they do not agree as to the canon of the scriptures then determined. In Kāṭhiāwāḍ at the present time there are at least eleven sub-sects amongst the Sthānakavāsī Jaina and eighty-four amongst the Śvetāmbara, and these hold differing views as to the correct list of books rightly comprised in their canon. Curiously enough they do not seem much to study the sacred texts themselves, but usually content themselves with quoting lists of the names of their books. It will perhaps suffice for our purpose if we note one such list from amongst those that have been given to the writer.

A. The Eleven Aṅga.

1. Āċārāṅga Sūtra.
2. Suyagaḍāṅga (Sūtrakṛitāṅga) Sūtra.
3. Thāṇānga (Sthānāṅga) Sūtra.
4. Samavāyāṅga Sūtra.
5. Bhagavatījī or Vivihapannanti.
6. Jñātādharma Kathāṅga.
7. Upāsaka Daśāṅga.
8. Antagaḍa Daśāṅga (Antakṛitāṅga).
9. Anuttarovavāi Dasāṅga (Anuttaropapātika).
10. Praśna Vyākaraṇa.
11. Vipāka Sūtra.

B. Twelve Upāṅga.

1. Uvavāi (Aupapātika).
2. Rāyapaseṇi (Rājapraśnīya).
3. Jivābhigama.
   4. Pannavaṇā (Prajñāpanā).
   5. Jambūdīvapannati (Jambūdvīpaprajñapti).
   6. Ċandapannati (Ċandraprajñapti).
   7. Surapannati (Sūryaprajñapti).
   8. Nirāvalīā (Nirayāvalī) (according to other lists, Kappīā).
   9. Kappavaḍīśayyā (Kalpāvantasikā).
   10. Pupphiyā (Puṣpakā).
   11. Puppaċulīā (Puṣpaċūlikā).
   12. Vanhidaśā.

C. Six Ċhedagrantha (or Five Ċhedagrantha).

1. Vyavahāra Sūtra.
2. Bṛihatkalpa (Vṛihatkalpa).
3. Daśāśrutaskandha.
4. Niśītha.
5. Mahāniśītha.^[16]
6. Jitakalpa.^[17]

Four Mūḷagrantha (according to the Śvetāmbara canon).

1. Daśavaikālika.
2. Uttarādhyayana.
3. Āvaśyaka.
4. Oghaniryuti.

Four Mūḷagrantha (according to the Sthānakavāsī canon).

1. Daśavaikālika.
2. Uttarādhyayana.
3. Nandī Sūtra.
4. Anuyogadvāra.

This completes the Sthānakavāsī canon, but the Śvetāmbara also accept the following:—

Ten Payannā (or Prakirna).

1. Ċausaraṇa (Ċatuḥśaraṇa).
2. Santhārā (Sanstāraka) Payannā.
   3. Tandulaveyālīā (Tandulavaiċārika).
   4. Ċandāvijaya (Ċandravedhyaka).
   5. Gaṇīvijaya (Gaṇividyā).
   6. Devindathuo (Devendrastava).
   7. Vīrathuo (Vīrastava).
   8. Gaċċhāċāra
   9. Jyotikaraṇḍa (Jyotiṣkaraṇḍaka).
   10. Ayuḥpaċċakhāṇa (Āturapratyākhyāna).

In certain other lists the Śvetāmbara canon is made to contain eighty-four books by adding twenty more Payannā, twelve Niryukti, and nine miscellaneous works, including the Kalpa Sūtra, which is held in special honour among the Śvetāmbara. Both Śvetāmbara and Sthānakavāsī agree that there were originally twelve Aṅga, but that the twelfth or Dṛiṣṭivāda Aṅga, containing an account of the fourteen Pūrva, has been lost.

What is the relation of the new canon to the old? It is probable that the Aṅga of the later correspond to those of the original canon; but it is also probable that during the centuries they underwent many changes. Jaina tradition acknowledges that all the Pūrva were lost at quite an early date. The other books are doubtless of later origin; yet even they rest on early tradition and probably contain a good deal of early material.

The original canon was not written, but it is not unlikely that individual monks used writing to aid memory long before the second codification. It seems certain that in a.d. 454 the whole canon was reduced to writing, and that a large number of copies were made, so that no monastery of any consequence should be without one.

The Jaina are very proud of the fact that their scriptures were not written in Sanskrit but in ‘one of the most important, the best preserved, and the most copious of all the Prākṛit dialects’^[18] that of Ardha-Māgadhī; that is to say, not in the language of the learned but of the common people; and we who have our scriptures and our book of Common Prayer in our mother tongue can understand their pride.

The Śvetāmbara do not, as a rule, allow their scriptures to be read by laymen, or even by nuns, but restrict the study of them to monks. The laity seem to read chiefly a book composed of quotations from their scriptures. The Sthānakavāsī are not so strict, and allow most of their sacred books to be read by the laity, but not the Ċhedagrantha, which they say were intended for the professed alone. The most popular of the books amongst the Sthānakavāsī laity are the Upāsaka Daśāṅga, the Āċārāṅga Sūtra, and the Daśavaikālika. To judge by their preaching and lectures the Kalpa Sūtra would seem to be the scripture most studied by the Svetāmbara sādhus.

The Digambara canon differs so entirely from the Śvetāmbara that it does not seem probable that the sect was represented at the great council of a.d. 454.

They call their scriptures their Four Veda, and members of their community at Mount Ābu and at Pālitāṇā gave the writer a list of them in the following order:

1. Prathamānuyoga.
2. Karaṇānuyoga.
3. Ċaraṇānuyoga.
4. Dravyānuyoga.

Professor Jacobi adduces in proof of the antiquity of the Jaina scriptures, amongst other things, the fact that they contain no reference to Greek astrology which was introduced into India in the third or fourth century a.d.

As we have already seen, it seems probable that, though the canon of the scriptures had been fixed in 300 b.c. by the council of Pāṭaliputra, they had not all been committed to writing, but had generally been handed down by word of mouth from teacher to disciple; the result, however, of the council of Vallabhi was the enshrining of the sacred lore in manuscript books. To this day the manuscript scriptures are considered more sacred than those which have been printed—the writer has sometimes seen a little pile of rice placed before a bookcase to do honour to the manuscript scriptures it contained.

The zenith of Jaina prosperity lasted from the council of Vallabhi down to the thirteenth century. Strangely enough the years that witnessed the decline and fall of Buddhism saw the spread both in the west and south of its rival faith, and though Jainism almost vanished from Bihār, the land of its birth, yet in the west it became the court religion. The events of these happy centuries are enshrined, as we shall see, in the legends that are still current amongst the Jaina, and more abiding monuments to this epoch of prosperity remain in the books that were written and the temples erected in the sunshine of royal favour.

The princely names the Jaina best love to recall in this connexion are Maṇḍalika, a king of Surāṣṭra (Kāṭhiāwāḍ) about a.d. 1059, who repaired the temple of Neminātha on Mt. Girnār; Siddharāja Jayasiṁha, a king of Gujarāt (died a.d. 1125), the first patron of Hemaċandra, who often went on pilgrimage to Girnār, and his successor Kumārapāla (a.d. 1125-59) whom the Jaina claim to have been converted to their faith,^[19] and who is said to have established Jainism as the state religion.

But the decline of Jainism was close at hand. The Jaina attribute the first destruction of their temples to the hostility of the Brāhmans, especially under Ajayapāla, a.d. 1174-6, but the injuries he inflicted were as nothing to the devastation wrought by the Mohammedans. As the Irish execrate the name of Cromwell, so did the Jaina that of Alā-ud-dīn—'the Bloody’—who conquered Gujarāt a.d. 1297-8. He razed many of their temples to the ground, massacred their communities and destroyed their libraries. Many of the most beautiful Mohammedan mosques in India have woven into their fabric stones from Jaina shrines which the ruthless conquerors had destroyed.

In the south Jainism had flourished exceedingly after its introduction by Bhadrabāhu, and many of the languages and grammars were largely shaped by the labours of Jaina monks.

In a.d. 640, when the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang visited India, he met numbers of monks belonging to the Digambara (naked) sect in the south and admired their beautiful temples. But after his visit a great persecution arose. A Jaina king, Kūna,^[20] became converted to Śaivism in the middle of the seventh century and, if we may trust the sculptures at Trivatūr in Arcot, slew with the most horrible severity thousands of his former co-religionists who refused to follow his example. Even if the account of the persecution be exaggerated, there is no doubt that after this time the prosperity of Jainism in the south steadily declined.

To return to the north. The wonder is, not that any temples survived the Mohammedan persecutions, but that Jainism itself was not extinguished in a storm which simply swept Buddhism out of India. The character of Jainism, however, was such as to enable it to throw out tentacles to help it in its hour of need. It had never, like Buddhism, cut itself off from the faith that surrounded it, for it had always employed Brāhmans as its domestic chaplains, who presided at its birth rites and often acted as officiants at its death and marriage ceremonies and temple worship. Then, too, amongst its chief heroes it had found niches for some of the favourites of the Hindu pantheon, Rāma, Kṛiṣṇa and the like. Mahāvīra’s genius for organization also stood Jainism in good stead now, for he had made the laity an integral part of the community, whereas in Buddhism they had no part nor lot in the order. So, when storms of persecution swept over the land, Jainism simply took refuge in Hinduism, which opened its capacious bosom to receive it; and to the conquerors it seemed an indistinguishable part of that great system.

The receptivity, however, which Hinduism has always shown towards it is to-day one of the reasons that makes Jainism so difficult to study; for many Jaina, justified by the resemblance in their worship and thought, simply count themselves Hindus and actually so write themselves down in the census returns.

If one effect of the Mohammedan conquest, however, was to drive many of the Jaina into closer union with their fellow idol-worshippers in the face of iconoclasts, another effect was to drive others away from idolatry altogether. No oriental could hear a fellow oriental’s passionate outcry against idolatry without doubts as to the righteousness of the practice entering his mind.

Naturally enough it is in Ahmadābād, the city of Gujarāt that was most under Mohammedan influence, that we can first trace the stirring of these doubts. About a.d. 1452 the Loṅkā sect, the first of the non-idolatrous Jaina sects, arose and was followed by the Ḍhuṇḍhīā or Sthānakavāsī sect about a.d 1653, dates which coincide strikingly with the Lutheran and Puritan movements in Europe.

Jainism has never recovered its temporal power since the days of the Mohammedan conquest; it is no longer in any sense a court religion; nevertheless the influence that it wields in India to-day is enormous. Its great wealth and its position as the religion par excellence of money-lenders and bankers makes it, especially in native states, the power behind the throne; and if any one doubt its influence, he need only count up the number of edicts prohibiting the slaying of animals on Jaina sacred days that have recently been issued by the rulers of independent states. According to the last census the Jaina numbered some 1,248,182, but probably many more are included under Hindus. Their standard of literacy (495 males and 40 females per thousand) is higher than that of any other community save the Pārsīs, and they proudly boast that not in vain in their system are practical ethics wedded to philosophical speculation, for their criminal record is magnificently white.

CHAPTER III

THE LIFE OF MAHĀVĪRA

Birth and Childhood.

We have seen that in the sixth century B.C. the times were ripe for revolt; now, after the event, it is almost easy to prophesy where the revolt was first likely to arise.

Birthplace.The strongest centre of Brāhmanical influence was in the country lying round the modern Delhi—it was the language spoken by the people in this tract of land that was destined to be developed by grammarians into the classical Sanskrit, and it was they who composed much of the old Brāhmanic literature that has come down to us. All this region, Dr. Grierson tells us, was called the 'Midland', but encircling it on east, south, and west was an 'Outland', where the Brāhmanic influence was less strong, and where the thinkers were to be found not in the priestly ranks, but 'among the Kṣatriya class to whose learning and critical acumen witness is borne even in contemporary Brāhmanic writings.'^[21] In this Outland near the modern Patna is a town called nowadays Besārh.

Most Indian towns are to-day divided into wards, where the various castes live apart. One must seek the potters in one quarter and the washermen in another, whilst the lowest of all, the despised refuse-removers, live actually outside the city walls.

Some two thousand years ago in Besārh the same divisions existed as would be found to-day; and there, in fact, the priestly (Brāhman), the warrior (Kṣatriya), and the commercial (Baniyā) communities lived so separately that their quarters were sometimes spoken of as though they had been distinct villages, as Vaiśālī, Kuṇḍagrāma, and Vāṇijyagrāma. Strangely enough, it was not in their own but in the Kṣatriya ward that the man was born who was to be the great hero of the Baniyā, and who was to found amongst these commercial people a religion which, with all its limitations, yet made one of the most emphatic protests the world has ever known against accounting luxury, wealth, or comfort the main things in life. It seems almost paradoxical also that the warrior caste should produce the great apostle of non-killing. He was afterwards known from his exploits as Mahāvīra—the great hero—but his earliest name he derived from his birthplace, being known simply as Vaiśāliya, ‘the man of Vaiśālī’ (the main ward of the town). The government of such a city or ward seems to have resembled that of a Greek state. ‘It was’, says Dr. Hoernle,^[22] ‘an oligarchic republic; its government was vested in a Senate, composed of the heads of the resident Kṣatriya clans, and presided over by an officer who had the title of king and was assisted by a Viceroy and a Commander-in-Chief.’ The chief of one of these Kṣatriya clans, the Nāta or Nāya clan, was a man called Siddhārtha, who doubtless attained some eminence in Senate and State, for he eventually married the daughter of this republican king, a Kṣatriya lady named Triśalā.

The fourteen dreams.This old-world princess longed, as every Indian woman does to-day, to bear her lord a son, and suddenly one night, the legend tells, wonderful dreams came to her as she slept, revealing to her not only that she should bear a son, but also that this son should win everlasting rest and renown.

These dreams of Triśalā’s^[23] are to-day often graven round the silver treasuries in Jaina temples, and Jaina women love to recall them, for it is given to all the mothers of the great Jaina saints to see them.

iFirst the happy princess dreamed of a mighty elephant^[24] whose colour was whiter than a cloud, a heap of pearls, the spray of water, or moonbeams, and the sound of whose voice was like thunder.

iiThen she saw a white bull, whiter than the petals of the lotus, which diffused a glory of light on all around, and this—so one sect of the Jaina, the Digambara, say—foretold the birth of a great religious teacher who should spread the light of knowledge. Another sect, however, the Sthānakavāsī, hold that it showed that he should have strength to bear the yoke of religion, for the yoke that a Jaina ascetic must bear is not light, and no weakling can endure it.

iiiThe next dream prophesied that she should bear one who should overcome all his enemies (i.e. his karma, the results of his actions): for she saw a magnificent white lion leap from the sky towards her face; his eyes were like pure lightning, and his tongue came out of his mouth ‘like a shoot of beauty’. This further foretold that Mahāvīra should be ‘the lion of houseless monks’, and so he has the lion as his symbol.

ivThe fourth dream was of the beautiful goddess Śrī or Lakṣmī (the goddess of wealth), whom Triśalā saw floating on the petals of a lotus in the lotus lake on Mount Himavata, with guardian elephants ‘anointing’ her with water, and this she knew meant that her son should be an ‘anointed’ king.

vNext, a garland^[25] of sweet-smelling Mandāra flowers foretold how fragrant the body of the little child should be.

viThe white moon^[26] dispelling the darkness of the wildest wilderness again prophesied a religious preacher.

viiThe radiant sun,^[27] red as the beak of a parrot, which throttles the cold and ‘disperses the evil-doers who stroll about at night, whose thousand rays obscure the lustre of other lights’, showed that the child should dispel the darkness of ignorance.

viiiThe sects do not agree as to what the eighth dream of the princess was about. The Śvetāmbara believe she saw a beautiful banner (an Indra Dhvaja) embroidered with those signs which Hindus and Jaina alike consider specially auspicious, and to whose golden pole^[28] was tied a plume of peacock’s feathers; while the Digambara affirm that she saw two fishes, which showed the child was to be happy.

ixThe ninth dream, the Śvetāmbara say, was a golden pitcher of exquisite beauty, filled with water—or, according to others, with jewels—which was the abode of happy fortune and was wreathed at all seasons with fragrant flowers, portending happiness. The Digambara assert that she saw two golden pitchers filled with pure water, to show that the child should be constantly immersed in spiritual meditation.

xThe next vision was that of a lotus lake whose flowers ‘were licked by bees and mad drones’, from which Triśalā knew that her baby would possess all the marks of a perfect being; or, as the Sthānakavāsī say, that the honey of his sermons would be eagerly absorbed by the whole world.

xiThe princess then saw the milk ocean, white as the breast of Lakṣmī, tossing its transparent breakers as the wind played over it and the great rivers rushed into it, and this foretold that the child should attain to the perfect knowledge of the Kevalī.

xi aAt this point the Digambara, who believe the princess saw not fourteen but sixteen dreams, insert a vision of a throne of diamonds and rubies, which foretold that the coming child should rule over the three worlds.

xiiHer next dream was of a jewel-bedecked celestial abode^[29] which shone like the morning sun and which was hung with garlands and pictures of birds and beasts. There the celestial choirs gave concerts, and the place resounded with the din of the drums of the gods which imitated the sound of rain clouds.

xii aHere again the Digambara insert a vision of a great king of the gods dwelling below the earth. This the Śvetāmbara do not accept, xiiibut both agree about the next dream, in which Triśalā saw a great vase piled up with jewels. The base of the vase was on the level of the earth, and its height was as the height of Mount Meru, and its brightness illuminated even the sky; it foretold the birth of a child that should possess right knowledge, right intuition, and right conduct.

xivHer last dream was of a clear fire fed with clarified butter, whose beautiful flames seemed almost to scorch the firmament, which prophesied that the white-souled child she was to bear should illumine the universe by his wisdom.

All these dreams Triśalā related to Siddhārtha, and the next day the interpreters that he summoned foretold from them the birth of a spiritual conqueror (Jina), lord of the three worlds and the universal emperor of the law.

Some of the more advanced Jaina do not believe that Triśalā actually saw all these dreams,^[30] but they hold that before the child’s birth both father and mother knew that he would be either a Ċakravartī (universal monarch) or a Tīrthaṅkara. Perhaps the legend of the dreams may carry with it this meaning, that at that time there was a universal stirring of desire, and that many were hoping some reformer or religious leader might be born. At any rate they must have conveyed the welcome assurance that the child at least would safely survive all the dangers that an Indian birth-chamber holds for both mother and babe.

There is another legend about Mahāvīra’s birth which is also recorded in the Jaina sacred books, and which possesses some value as showing the intense hatred existing between the Brāhmans and the Kṣatriyas. According to this legend, a Brāhman lady, Devānandā, wife of the Brāhman Ṛiṣabhadatta, living in the Brāhmanical part of the town, saw the Fourteen Auspicious Dreams which foretold the birth of a great saint or Tīrthaṅkara. But Indra,^[31] the chief of the gods, saw from his celestial throne what had happened, and knew that the child would be the great Tīrthaṅkara Mahāvīra; so he sent his commander-in-chief in the form of a deer to remove the embryo from Devānandā^[32] and to give it to Triśalā, in order that Mahāvīra might not be born in a ‘beggarly or Brāhmanical family’. However that may be, the stories go on to show how carefully Triśalā, two thousand years ago, prepared for the joy of motherhood just as a modern woman would, by avoiding all sickness and fatigue and walking in quiet country places, so that she might gain health for body and mind. At last, in the year 599 b.c. of our era, or towards the end of the Duṣama Suṣama period, as the Jaina reckon time, on the thirteenth day of the bright half of the moon in the month Ċaitra, the time came when Triśalā, herself perfectly healthy, gave birth to a perfectly healthy child.

Birth.The thought of India centres largely round marriage and motherhood, and the birth of a manchild then, as now, was the occasion of a very delirium of rejoicing. To-day, in a native state, the birth of an heir is celebrated in very much the same way as it was in Mahāvīra’s time. The town is en fête, prisoners are released, fines are cancelled, presents are given, and presents (alas!) are exacted.

When the child was three days old, it was shown the sun and the moon (this is not usual now); on the sixth day they observed the religious vigil (modern Jaina still worship ‘Mother Sixth’), Triśalā bathed on the tenth day, and on the twelfth, after the usual family feast, the boy was named with all pomp and circumstance. In India it is the father’s sister who usually names a child, but his parents themselves chose Mahāvīra’s name, announcing that ‘since the prince was placed in the womb of the Kṣatriyāṇī Triśalā this family’s (treasure) of gold, silver, riches, corn, jewels, pearls, shells, precious stones and corals increased; therefore the prince shall be called Vardhamāna (i.e. the Increasing^[33])’. Mahāvīra was sometimes, as we have seen, called Vaiśāliya from his birthplace; his followers, however, seldom call him by this or by the name his parents gave him, but prefer to use the title they say the gods gave him, that of Mahāvīra, the great hero, or else Jina, the conqueror, though this last is really more used in connexion with the religion (Jainism) he promulgated than with himself. He is also known as Jñātaputra, Nāmaputra,^[34] Śāsananāyaka, and Buddha.

It was partly the multitude of his names, partly also the number of legends that loving child-like folk had woven round the cradle of their hero, that long obscured the fact that Mahāvīra was an historical personage. Another reason for doubting his existence lay in the superficial resemblance there is between his life and teaching and that of his contemporary, Buddha. It was assumed that one of the two systems must have sprung from the other, and it is only through the labours of European scholars like Jacobi, Hoernle, and Bühler that Mahāvīra’s historical existence has been proved. It seems strange that Jaina should still be dependent on the labours of scholars of another faith and speech for all they know about their greatest hero!

We have noticed some of the legends that have gathered round Mahāvīra, and it is worth while examining more, since legends help us in a special way to grasp the latent ideals of a faith. We can learn from them what its followers admire and what they despise, and also what qualities they revere sufficiently to link with their leader’s name. If we contrast the stories told of Mahāvīra with those told, for instance, of Kṛiṣṇa by Hindus, we shall see at once that the thoughts of these early followers of Jainism moved on a higher, cleaner plane, and this purity of thought is one of the glories of Jainism to-day.

Childhood.Austere though the creed of the Jaina is, there are some amongst them whose habit of mind leads them to interpret even these severe tenets as sternly as possible. This diversity of temperament (which is surely inherent in the human race) manifests itself in the stories told of Mahāvīra’s life. The Digambara (who are the straitest sect among the Jaina) always represent their hero as choosing the sterner and less pleasing path: avoiding marriage and going on his way unhindered by any fear of hurting his parents’ feelings. The Śvetāmbara sect, on the other hand, believe that, though from his earliest hours Mahāvīra longed to forsake the world and betake himself to a houseless, wandering life, he nevertheless felt he could not do this during his parents’ lifetime, lest he should cause them pain. Even before his birth, the legend runs, he decided thus: ‘It will not behove me, during the life of my parents, to tear out my hair, and leaving the house to enter the state of houselessness.’^[35] So he lived the ordinary life of a happy boy, watched over by the innumerable servants that seem inseparable from Indian life,^[36] but enjoying to the full ‘the noble fivefold joys and pleasures of sound, touch, taste, colour and smell’.

Both sects delight to tell of his boyish prowess and of how easily he excelled all his companions in strength and physical endurance, as he did in beauty of mind and body. One day, they say, the sons of his father’s ministers had come as usual to play with him in the royal gardens, when suddenly a mad elephant charged down on the group of children, who fled hither and thither in their efforts to escape. Mahāvīra, however, quietly went up to the infuriated animal, caught it by its trunk, and climbing up on it, escaped being trodden by its feet by riding on its back!

Another legend tells how, when he was playing with the same children at āmbalī pīpaḷī (a sort of ‘tick’ or ‘tig’) among the trees, a god appeared and thought to frighten the child by carrying him high up into the sky on his shoulders. Mahāvīra, however, was not in the least alarmed, and, seizing the opportunity to show his superiority over immortals, whacked the god and pulled his hair so hard, that he was only too ready to descend and get rid of his obstreperous burden. The child who had thus defeated one of their number was called Mahāvīra by the other gods—a name mortals were quick to adopt.

According to the Śvetāmbara tradition Mahāvīra married a lady called Yaśodā (belonging to the Kauṇḍinya gotra), and a daughter was born to them named Anujā (Anojjā) or Priyadarśanā. This daughter eventually married a nobleman called Jamāli, who, after becoming one of Mahāvīra’s followers and fellow workers, ended by opposing him. Their child (Mahāvīra’s granddaughter) had two names, being known both as Śeśavatī and Yaśovatī.

It was pointed out in the introduction how profoundly some Indians believe that the result of action (karma) ties men to the cycle of rebirth, and that if, through the cessation of life, action and its resultant karma could be ended, so much the less would be the danger of rebirth. This tenet naturally encouraged belief in suicide as a form of prudential insurance! Amongst the recorded deaths by suicide are those of Mahāvīra’s parents, who, according to the Śvetāmbara belief, died of voluntary starvation: ‘on a bed of kuśa grass they rejected all food, and their bodies dried up by the last mortification of the flesh which is to end in death.’^[37] At their death Mahāvīra, who was by now approaching his thirtieth year, felt free to become an ascetic, and asked his elder brother’s permission to renounce the world; the brother consented, only stipulating that Mahāvīra should do nothing in the matter for a year, lest people should think they had quarrelled.

The Digambara accounts differ widely from this. According to them, even when only a child of eight, Mahāvīra took the twelve vows^[38] which a Jaina layman may take, and that he always longed to renounce the world; other Digambara say that it was in his thirtieth year that, whilst meditating on his ‘self’, he determined to become a monk, realizing that he would only spend seventy-two years in this incarnation as Mahāvīra. At first his parents were opposed to the idea of their delicately nurtured child undergoing all the hardships that fall to the lot of a houseless mendicant, but at last they consented, and it was during their lifetime that Mahāvīra entered on the spiritual vocation, which in India, as in Europe, has so often proved a suitable career for younger sons.

Modern research would seem to favour the Śvetāmbara belief that Mahāvīra had married, but this the Digambara strenuously deny, for an ascetic who has never married moves on a higher plane of sanctity than one who has known the joys of wedded life.

Mahāvīra's Initiation.

Jainism, though it denies the existence of a creator and of the three great gods of the Indian Trimūrti, Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva, has never shaken itself free from the belief in many of the minor gods of the Hindu pantheon. It gives these gods, it is true, a very secondary position as servants or tempters of the great Jaina saints, but their existence is accepted as undoubted; accordingly, in the account of Mahāvīra's initiation we shall find many of the old Hindu gods represented as being present.

This initiation, all sects agree, took place when Mahāvīra was about thirty years of age, some time therefore between 570 and 569 b.c. The Nāya clan to which he belonged seem to have supported a body of monks who followed the rule of Pārśvanātha, an ascetic who had lived some two hundred and fifty years before Mahāvīra. It was naturally to this order, probably considered rather irregular by the Brāhmans, that the thoughts of Mahāvīra turned. Its monks had their cells in a park^[39] outside the Kṣatriya suburb (Kuṇḍagrāma) of Vaiśālī, and in the centre of this park grew one of those evergreen Aśoka or 'sorrowless' trees, whose leaves are supposed never to know either grief or pain. The Aśoka tree is always associated with Mahāvīra, for the legends say that in his later life an Aśoka tree grew wherever he preached, and it was now under its shade that he made the great renunciation and entered upon that ascetic life, whose austerities were to dry up all the founts of karma and free him from the sorrowful cycle of rebirth.

Mahāvīra had fasted for two-and-a-half days, not even allowing water to cross his lips, and had then given away all his property, which can only have been the ordinary possessions of the cadet of a small House, but which the love of his followers has exaggerated into the wealth of a mighty emperor.^[40] Then, followed by a train of gods and men, he was carried in a palanquin to the park and, alighting, took his seat on a five-tiered throne,^[41] which was so placed as to face the east. There he stripped himself of all his ornaments and finery, flinging them to the attendant god Vaiśramaṇa, who caught them up as they fell.

Most Hindu mendicants cut or shave off their hair, but a peculiar and most painful custom of the Jaina is that all ascetics, as a proof of their power of endurance, must tear out their hair by the roots. One Jaina writer declares in his English ‘Life of Mahāvīra’ that ‘only those can do it who have no love with their flesh and bones’. It is looked on as a sign that henceforth the monk or nun will take no thought for the body.

As Mahāvīra performed this crowning act of austerity, Indra, the leader and king of the gods, falling down before the feet of the venerable ascetic, caught up the hairs in a diamond cup and took them to the Ocean of Milk. The saint then did obeisance to all liberated spirits, and vowing to do no sinful act, adopted the holy conduct.^[42]

The Jaina mark with great precision the five degrees of knowledge that lead to Omniscience. Mahāvīra, they say, was born with the first three, Mati jñāna, Śruta jñāna, and Avadhi jñāna. He now gained the fourth kind of knowledge, Manaḥparyāya jñāna, by which he knew the thoughts of all sentient beings of five senses in the two-and-a-half continents, and it only remained for him to obtain the fifth degree of knowledge, that of Kevala jñāna or Omniscience, which is possessed by the Kevalī alone.

The Digambara, however, do not believe that Mahāvīra obtained the fourth kind of knowledge till some time after his initiation. According to them, he failed to gain it, though he performed meditation for six months, sitting absolutely motionless. At the end of the six months he went to Kulapura; the king of Kulapura, Kulādhipa, came and did him honour, washed his feet with his own hands and, having walked round him three times, offered him rice and milk; these Mahāvīra accepted and took them as his first meal (pāraṇuṁ) after a fast of six months. He returned to the forest and wandered about in it performing twelve kinds of penance, but still the knowledge was withheld from him. At last he visited Ujjayinī (Ujjain) and did penance in a cemetery there, when Rudra and his wife in vain tried to interrupt him; it was only after overcoming this temptation and again entering on his forest life of meditation that, according to the Digambara belief, he obtained Manaḥparyāya jñāna. Henceforth Mahāvīra was houseless, and wandered through the land so lost in meditation as to be indifferent to sorrow and joy, pain and pleasure, subsisting only on the alms of the charitable.

Research seems to have established the fact that at first he belonged to the order of Pārśvanātha mentioned above, a body of mendicants leading a more or less regular life, and that in accordance with their custom he wore clothes; but many Jaina will not acknowledge that a Tīrthaṅkara could have belonged to an order even for ever so short a time; they agree, however, that for thirteen months he did wear one cloth.

The legend runs that the god Indra himself gave Mahāvīra the beautiful robe which he wore at his initiation. Before the ceremony the saint had given away all his goods in charity, but a certain Brāhman named Somadatta, being absent at that time, had received nothing. He came and complained, and Mahāvīra was greatly troubled to think that he had nothing left to give him, till he remembered Indra’s robe; taking this off, he cut it in two and gave half to the greedy Brāhman. Somadatta was delighted, and showed it off with great pride to a friend of his who was a weaver. The weaver told Somadatta to go back and get the other half and then he would have a robe worth having, which could all be woven into one. The Brāhman was ashamed to actually go and ask for the remaining part, but knowing how completely unconscious of everything that went on around him Mahāvīra was, he walked softly behind the ascetic, and when the robe slipped off (as is the nature of half robes) he stooped, and gently lifting it off the thorns on to which it had fallen, quietly made off with his booty. When Mahāvīra discovered the theft, all he did was to make a parable about it, in which he taught how thorny would be the road of his true disciples in this world, but how priceless would be their value when delivered at last from the thorns that beset them.

Not only was the great ascetic unconscious of the whereabouts of his earthly possessions, he was also absolutely indifferent to pain; for instance, one day he was sitting in meditation outside a village, when some herdsmen, in rough sport, lit a fire between his feet and drove nails into his ears, without the saint being in the least aware of what they were doing.

In India it would be specially easy for abuses to spring up among a body of mendicants; they could gain their food so easily, that a great part of ‘the long Indian day’ would hang idle on their hands, and our proverb about Satan finding work for idle hands to do has its Gujarātī counterpart: ‘A man sitting idle brings ruin to pass.’^[43] Many men doubtless had become monks through a constitutional aversion from honest labour, and the climate and leisure, whilst increasing this distaste for work in them, would be apt to create it even in those who had entered the order from the highest motives. Altogether the world-old employer of the unemployed could find fair scope for his mischievous energies amongst them!^[44] And so before long Māhavīra found the discipline of Pārśvanātha’s monks too lax, and after a year he left them, to wander alone in a state of absolute nudity.

The question of clothes was a crucial one amongst the Jaina. Māhavīra apparently felt that the complete ascetic must have completely conquered all his emotions, shame amongst others. A true monk would not feel either heat or cold, and so would not need the protection from the weather offered by clothes, and he would be so indifferent to mere appearance as to be unconscious as to whether he wore raiment or not. Being rid of clothes, one is also rid of a lot of other worries too : one needs no box to keep them in, no materials to mend them with, no change of raiment when the first set is dirty or outworn, and, still more important to a Jaina, no water is needed in which to wash them. On this point Mr. Benārsi Dāss makes some rather interesting remarks in his lecture on Jainism, and throws an astonishingly new light on an old story.

‘Jaina monks’, he says, ‘are naked because Jainism says that as long as one entertains the same idea of nakedness as we do, he cannot obtain salvation. One cannot, according to Jain principles, obtain Mokṣa, as long as he remembers that he is naked. He can only cross over the ocean of the world after he has forgotten that he is naked. . . . As long as a man thinks and knows that he is naked, that there is something like good and evil, he cannot obtain Mokṣa. He must forget it to obtain Nirvāṇa. This is very well illustrated by the well-

known story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from heaven. Adam and Eve were naked and pure. They enjoyed perfect happiness in the garden of Eden. They had no knowledge of good and evil. The devil, their enemy, desired to deprive them of their happiness. He made them eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They at once saw their nakedness. They fell. They were expelled from heaven. It is this knowledge of good and evil, it is this knowledge of nakedness, that deprived them of Eden. The Jains hold the same belief. Our knowledge of good and evil, our knowledge of nakedness, keeps us away from salvation. To obtain it we must forget nakedness. The Jaina Nirgranthas have forgot all knowledge of good and evil. Why should they require clothes to hide their nakedness?’^[45]

Sir Monier Williams suggests^[46] that the Jaina ‘felt that a sense of shame implied sin, so that if there were no sin in the world there would be no shame. Hence they argued rather illogically that to get rid of clothes was to get rid of sin, and every ascetic who aimed at sinlessness was enjoined to walk about naked with the air or sky (dig) as his sole covering.’

The Digambara believe that Mahāvīra abandoned clothes at the time of his initiation; the Śvetāmbara, as we have seen, that he abandoned them after thirteen months.

It was whilst Mahāvīra was walking naked and homeless and, as the Digambara believe, keeping absolutely unbroken his vow of silence, that he was joined by Gośāla, a disciple whose story we shall have to study more in detail later. For the present we need only note that Gośāla followed Mahāvīra for six years, but subsequently left him and fell into those grievous sins which so easily beset a mendicant, and to guard against which so many precepts in the Jaina scriptures are directed.

For twelve years Mahāvīra wandered from place to place, never staying for longer than a single night in a village or for more than five nights in a town. The object of this custom may have been to avoid levying too great a tax on the hospitality of the people, and also to prevent the ascetic forming close or undesirable friendships, which might tempt him to break either his vow of non-possession of goods or of chastity.^[47] The rule was, however, relaxed during the rainy season, when Mahāvīra, like his subsequent followers, made a practice of remaining for four months at the same place, lest he should injure any of the young life that springs so suddenly and abundantly into being, once the monsoon bursts and the rains, on which India’s prosperity depends, begin to fall. During these twelve years, we are told, he meditated always on himself, on his Ātmā, and walked sinless and circumspect in thought, word and deed.

‘As water does not adhere to a copper vessel, or collyrium to mother of pearl (so sins found no place in him); his course was unobstructed like that of Life; like the firmament he wanted no support; like the wind he knew no obstacles; his heart was pure like the water (of rivers or tanks) in autumn; nothing could soil him like the leaf of a lotus; his senses were well protected like those of a tortoise; he was single and alone like the horn of a rhinoceros; he was free like a bird; he was always like the fabulous bird Bhāruṇḍa, valorous like an elephant, strong like a bull, difficult to attack like a lion, steady and firm like Mount Mandara, deep like the ocean, mild like the moon, refulgent like the sun, pure like excellent gold; like the earth he patiently bore everything; like a well-kindled fire he shone in his splendour.’^[48]

Many legends are told of Mahāvīra’s absolute absorption in meditation and of his unconsciousness of outward circumstances during these years. One of these stories has a slight resemblance to that of King Alfred and the cakes: Once upon a time the great ascetic sat down to meditate on the outskirts of Kumāragrāma. He crossed his ankles, and, gazing fixedly at the tip of his nose, was soon so immersed in reflection as to be lost to all that went on around him. A busy farmer bustled past and asked this man who was sitting down and apparently doing nothing to look after his bullocks till his return. Mahāvīra neither heard the request nor saw the animals, far less took care of them. On his return the farmer saw the apparently idle man still seated doing nothing, but could get no answer from him as to the whereabouts of his beasts and had to go off in search of them. The bullocks meanwhile, having eaten their fill, returned and lay down to rest beside the gentle saint. The poor owner searched for the beasts the whole night through, and was enraged on returning next morning to find where they were, for it seemed to him a plot to steal the animals; so he seized their halter and began to beat Mahāvīra with it. Fortunately the god Indra knew what was happening and interfered in time to stop such sacrilege; but he begged Mahāvīra to allow him in future to guard him himself, or to appoint some other god to do so. The saint, however, refused any protection, saying that, just as a Tīrthaṅkara must always obtain omniscience by his own unaided efforts, so must he attain Mokṣa unprotected by any one. But the gods had grown nervous lest Mahāvīra should be killed inadvertently, so Indra, without the saint's knowledge, appointed one Siddhārtha (a cousin of Mahāvīra's who had become a god) to protect him.

Enlightenment and Death.

How Mahāvīra attained Omniscience.We have seen that Mahāvīra was born with three degrees of knowledge and had acquired the fourth. He was now, at the end of his twelve years of wandering and penance, to acquire the fifth degree—Kevala jñāna or Omniscience. In the thirteenth year after his renunciation of the world and initiation as an ascetic, Mahāvīra stayed in a place not very far from the Pārasnāth hills called Jṛimbhakagrāma.^[49] There was a field there belonging to a farmer called Samāga^[50] which surrounded an old temple, and through this field the river Ṛijupālikā^[51] flowed. One afternoon Mahāvīra was seated under the shade of a Sāla tree in this quiet meadow in deepest meditation. Just as before his initiation, so now he had fasted for two-and-a-half days without even touching water, and as he sat there lost in thought, he peacefully attained supreme knowledge. Henceforth he possessed ‘complete and full, the unobstructed, unimpeded, infinite and supreme, best knowledge and intuition called Kevala jñāna’. His meditations and austerities had been so profound as to destroy the last of all the karma, the enemies to enlightenment, knowledge and freedom, and henceforth his pathway would be unimpeded. Mahāvīra now added to his titles those of Jina (or Conqueror of the Eight Karma, the great enemies), from which Jainism derives its name, Arhata (or Being worthy of Veneration), Arihanta (or Destroyer of Enemies) and Anihanta or (One who has killed even the roots of karma).

Mahāvīra as a Preacher.Now,^[52] as the conqueror of karma and equipped with supreme knowledge, Mahāvīra began to teach his way, and his first sermon was on the five great vows which we shall study later.

The Jaina declare that Mahāvīra’s great message to mankind was that birth is nothing and caste nothing, but karma everything, and on the destruction of karma future happiness depends.

The Brāhmans had laid stress on birth, and had insisted that, however bad a Brāhman were, he would need to do small penance compared with what would be obligatory on even a righteous man of low caste.

Mahāvīra’s contemporary Buddha had taught that in desire lay the cause that led to rebirth; that mental discipline was of supreme importance, and asceticism and austerity of no avail. Mahāvīra, on the contrary, laid the greatest stress on asceticism. In its glow karma could be burnt up, and only through austerities could one become a Tīrthaṅkara.

Mahāvīra’s first disciple was Gautama Indrabhūti, who in turn became a Kevalī, and whose story we tell later. After instructing Gautama, Mahāvīra set off on his preaching tours in real earnest, and taught his Rule with great acceptance to all his warrior kinsfolk. Like Buddha, he preached first to the rich and aristocratic, and though his followers to-day are to be found more amongst the middle classes, his earliest supporters seem to have been rulers and petty kings. This may have been because they too disliked Brāhman pretensions and were pleased that one of their own kinsfolk should lead a revolt against them. Mahāvīra's connexions through his mother Triśalā must have been invaluable to him at the beginning of this work; indeed, Dr. Jacobi thinks that the real meaning of the story about the removal of the embryo from one mother to another was to hide the fact that Mahāvīra was really the son of another and far less highly connected wife of the king, and to pretend that he was the son instead of the stepson of Triśalā.^[53] This of course the Jaina indignantly deny. The Digambara and Śvetāmbara legends give the names of the different rulers Mahāvīra visited, and tell how Ċetaka, king of Videha, became a patron of the order, and Kuṇika, king of Aṅga, gave him the most cordial welcome, and how, when he travelled as far as Kauśāmbī, he was received with the greatest honour by its king Satānika, who listened with deep interest to his preaching, and eventually entered his order. The Digambara claim that in thirty years he converted to Jainism Magadha, Bihār, Prayāga, Kauśāmbī, Ċampāpurī and many other powerful states in North India. They believe that he did not travel alone, Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/69 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/70 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/71 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/72 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/73 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/74 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/75

CHAPTER IV

MAHĀVĪRA'S PREDECESSORS AND DISCIPLES

Pārś-
vanātha.Pārśvanātha, the Tīrthaṅkara who immediately preceded Mahāvīra, may also have been an historical person. Very probably he did something to draw together and improve the discipline of the homeless monks who were outside the pale of Brāhmanism, much as St. Benedict did in Europe. If so, he was the real founder of Jainism, Mahāvīra being only a reformer who carried still further the work that Pārśvanātha had begun.

The Jaina say that Pārśvanātha was born in what is now the city of Benares about 817 B.C. His father, Aśvasena, was the king of that town, and to his mother, Queen Vāmā, were granted the wonderful dreams which always foretell the birth of a Tīrthaṅkara. Before he was born, his mother, lying in the dark, saw a black serpent crawling about by her side, and so gave her little son the name of Pārśva. All his life Pārśvanātha was connected with snakes, for when he was grown up he was once able to rescue a serpent from grave danger. A Brāhman ascetic was kindling a fire, without noticing whether in so doing he was destroying life or not, when Pārśvanātha happened to pass and drew from the log the Brāhman was lighting a poor terrified snake that had taken up its abode in the wood.

Whilst in the world, Pārśvanātha bore himself with great credit; he was a brave warrior and defeated the Yavana king of Kaliṅga, and he eventually married Prabhāvatī, daughter of Prasannajita, king of Ayodhyā.

At the age of thirty he renounced the world and became an ascetic with the same ceremonies that have been described in the case of Mahāvīra. In order to gain Omniscience he practised austerities for eighty-three days, and during this time an enemy, Kamaṭha, caused a heavy downpour of rain to fall on him, so that these austerities might be made as trying to flesh and blood as possible. Now this enemy was no one else than the Brāhman ascetic whose carelessness in a previous incarnation had so nearly caused the death of the poor snake. But if Pārśvanātha's enemies were active, his grateful friends were no less mindful of him, and the snake, who by now had become the god Dharaṇendra, held a serpent's hood over the ascetic, and sheltered him as with an umbrella; and to this day the saint's symbol is a hooded serpent's head. On the eighty-fourth day Pārśvanātha obtained Kevala jñāna seated under a Dhātaki tree near Benares.

He now became the head of an enormous community, his mother and wife being his first disciples. Followed by these, he preached his doctrines for seventy years, until at last his karma was exhausted, and, an old man of a hundred years, he reached deliverance at last on Mount Sameta Śikhara in Bengal, which was thenceforth known as the Mount of Pārśvanātha.

The four
vows of
Pārśva-
nātha.Pārśvanātha made four vows binding on the members of his community: not to take life, not to lie, not to steal and not to own property. He doubtless felt that the chastity and celibacy was included under the last two heads, but in the two hundred and fifty years that elapsed between his death and the coming of Mahāvīra, abuses became so rife that the latter was forced to add another vow— that of chastity—to those already enumerated. This he did by dividing the vow of property specifically into two, one part relating to women and the other to material possessions. Some Jaina, however, believe that Pārśvanātha's four vows were those of non-killing, non-lying, non-stealing and chastity, that it was the promise to keep nothing as one's own possession that Mahāvīra added to these, and that it was in order to keep this vow that Mahāvīra himself went about naked.

Another reform which they say Mahāvīra introduced was the making confession compulsory instead of optional for monks. All these traditions bear out the idea that Mahāvīra was a reformer rather than a founder of his faith and order, and that the rule of Pārśvanātha had not been found in practice sufhciently stringent.

The Twenty-two Earlier Tīrthaṅkara.

Jainism
the
oldest
religion.We have begun our survey of Jaina legend with the birth of Mahāvīra, but no Jaina historian would do that. The Jaina firmly believe that theirs is the oldest religion in India, and delight to quote many passages^[54] from the Veda which prove to them that Jainism existed before the Veda were written and cannot therefore be an offshoot of Brāhmanism, as most scholars believe. They reject the old theory^[55] that Gautama Indrabhūti revolted from Jainism and became the founder of Buddhism, and claim Buddhism as a late offshoot of Jainism, telling the following legend to prove it. During the interval between the days of Pārśvanātha and those of Mahāvīra there lived a certain Jaina monk called Buddha Kīrti, who was well learned in the scriptures. One day he was performing austerities by the side of the river Sarayū in Pālāśa Nagara, and as he sat there he saw a dead fish floating by him. As he watched it, he reflected that there could be no harm in eating the flesh of dead fish, for there was no soul within it. This thought inspired him, the Jaina say, to found a new religion; he left his austerities, assumed red garments, and preached Buddhism.

According to the Jaina, the best way to begin the study of their history is through the stories of the Tīrthaṅkara. We have studied the lives of the two latest Tīrthaṅkara, Pārśvanātha, the twenty-third, and Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth; but the Jaina have legends regarding each one of their predecessors.

1. Ṛiṣa-
bhadeva
or Ādi-
nātha.The first Tīrthaṅkara was born when the world had passed out of its happiest stage and was in the era of Suṣama Duṣama.^[56] A Rajput king had a little son born to him, whom his mother called Ṛiṣabhadeva, because in her dream she had seen a bull (ṛiṣabha)) coming towards her. Ṛiṣabhadeva (also called Ādinātha) taught men seventy-two arts and women sixty-four, for these have only to be skilled in domestic and not in literary and industrial crafts; but his great glory lies in the fact that he first taught men the Jaina faith. He lived for eighty-four lakhs of pūrva of time, of which he spent only one lakh of pūrva as an ascetic. Ṛiṣabhadeva had one hundred sons (amongst whom was the famous king Bharata); their height was five hundred bow-shots. This first Tīrthaṅkara attained mokṣa from Aṣṭāpada (or Kailāsa) in the modern Himalayas.

2. Ajita-
nātha.The world grew steadily worse, and in fifty lakhs of crores of sāgara of time the next Tīrthaṅkara, Ajitanātha, was born in Ayodhyā. After his birth all his father's enemies were conquered (jita), hence his name, 'the invincible one'. He was born in the period called Duṣama Suṣama, and all the remaining Tīrthaṅkara were born in the same period. His sign, which one sees on all his images in the temples, is an elephant. During his life he himself earned the title of Victorious, for he was so devout an ascetic that he was beaten by none in performing austerities. He attained mokṣa together with a thousand other Sādhus.

3. Sam-
bhava-
nātha.After thirty more lakhs of crores of sāgara Sambhavanātha, the third Tīrthaṅkara, was born in Śrāvastī of Rajput parents. The king his father had been distressed to see the way his dominions were ravaged by plague and famine, but when he heard the good news of the boy's birth, he felt there was a chance (sambhava) of better times coming, hence the boy's name. He too was able to persuade a thousand ascetics to join his community or saṇgha, who eventually all attained mokṣa with him. His emblem is the horse.

4. Abhi-
nandana.The fourth Tīrthaṅkara owes his name to the fact that the god Indra used to come down and worship (abhinanda) him in Vanitā, where his parents, Saṁvara and Siddārtha Rāṇī, ruled. He attained mokṣa accompanied by a thousand monks, as indeed did all the first eleven Tīrthaṅkara except Supārśvanātha. Abhinandana has the ape for his sign; he was born ten lakhs of crores of sāgara of time after his predecessor. His height was three hundred and fifty bow-shots.

5. Suma-
tinātha.The legend about the fifth Tīrthaṅkara, Sumatinātha, is more interesting; he was born in Kaṅkaṇapura, where his father, a Rajput named Megharatha, was king; his mother's name was Sumaṅgaḷā. The child was called Sumatinātha, because even before his birth his mother's intellect (sumati) was so sharpened. To prove the queen's ability, a story is told resembling that of the judgement of Solomon. An old Brahman died, leaving two wives; both women claimed the only son as theirs, and the dispute was taken to the queen to settle, who decreed, as Solomon did (and with similar results), that the living child should be cut in two. This Tīrthaṅkara's sign is sometimes given as a red goose, but others say it is a red partridge. He was born nine lakhs of crores of sāgara after Abhinandana, and his height was three hundred bow-shots.

6. Pad-
mapra-
bhu.Susīmā, the mother of the sixth Tīrthaṅkara, longed before his birth to sleep on a bed of red lotuses (padma), with the result that her son was always the colour of a red lotus, which flower he took for his emblem. His father, Dhara, was the Rajput king of Kauśāmbī. Padmaprabhu was born ninety thousand crores of sāgara of time after his predecessor; his height was two hundred and fifty bow-shots.

7. Supār-
śvanātha.The father of the next Tīrthaṅkara was the Rajput king of Benares; but his wife suffered from leprosy in both her sides. This dreadful disease was cured before the child's birth, so he was given the name of Su (good) pārśva (side). His emblem is the Svastika symbol . Unlike the other earlier Tīrthaṅkara he attained mokṣa with only five hundred companions. Nine thousand crores of sāgara of time had elapsed since the death of his predecessor, and his height was two hundred bow-shots.

8. Ċan-
drapra-
bhu.After a further interval of nine hundred crores of sāgara of time the eighth Tīrthaṅkara was born; his height was one hundred and fifty bow-shots. Before his birth his mother (the wife of the Rajput king of Ċandrapurī) longed to drink the moon (ċandra). To assuage her craving, a plate of water was one night handed to her in such a way that the moon was reflected in it; when the child was born, he was found to be as bright and white as the moon, which accordingly became his emblem, and he was called Ċandraprabhu.

9. Suvi-
dhinātha.Two names are given to the next Tīrthaṅkara. Owing to the peace he brought to a distracted family, all of whose kingly relatives were warring against one another, he is called Suvidhinātha, for on his birth they gave up fighting and took instead to performing their religious duties (suvidhi); but as his teeth were so beautiful that they resembled the buds of an exquisite flower (puṣpa), he was also cahed Puṣpadanta. There is a dispute over his emblem: the Śvetāmbara say it is the crocodile, while certain Digambara declare it is the crab. Ninety crores of sāgara elapsed before his birth, and his height was one hundred bow-shots.

10. Śita-
ḷanāthaThe tenth Tīrthaṅkara had a marvellous power of parting coolness (śitaḷanā) to fevered patients. Before his birth his mother laid her hand on her husband, the Rajput king of Bhaddilapura, and immediately the fever which had defied all the efforts of his physicians left him, and all his life long the saint had a similar power, hence his name, Śitaḷanātha, Lord of Coolness. His sign is the Śrīvatsa svastika , or according to the Digambar, the Ficus religiosa. His height was ninety bow-shots, and the interval of time between him and his predecessor was nine crores of sāgara.

11. Śre-
yāṁsa-
nātha. King Viṣṇudeva, who ruled in Siṁhapurī, possessed a most beautiful throne, but unfortunately an evil spirit took up his abode in it, so that no one dare sit there. His wife, however, so longed to sit on it that she determined to do so at any risk; to every one's astonishment she was quite uninjured, so, when her son was born, he was named Śreyāṁsanātha, the Lord of Good, for already he had enabled his mother to cast out an evil spirit and so do a world of good (śreyāṁsa). His sign is the rhinoceros; one crore of sāgara of time had intervened before his birth; and his height was eighty bow-shots.

12. Vāsu-
pūjya.Before the birth of the twelfth Tīrthaṅkara the gods Indra and Vasu used to go and worship the father of the future saint, and as the father's name was Vasupūja and the god Indra used to give him jewels called vasu, the child was naturally enough called Vāsupūjya. His sign is the male buffalo, and he passed to mokṣa from his birthplace, Ċampāpurī, accompanied by six hundred Sādhus. Fifty-four sāgara of time had intervened, and his height was seventy arrow-shots.

13. Vima-
ḷanāthaThe sign of the thirteenth Tīrthaṅkara is the boar. He got his name Vimaḷanātha, Lord of Clearness, through the clearness (vimaḷatā) of intellect with which he endowed his mother before his birth, and which she displayed in the following manner. A certain man and his wife unwisely stayed in a temple inhabited by a female demon, who, falling in love with the husband, assumed his real wife's form. The miserable man was quite unable to tell which was his true wife, and asked the king of Kampilapura to distinguish between them. It was the queen, however, who solved the difficulty. She knew the long reach that witches and only witches have, and telling the husband to stand a long distance off, challenged the two wives to prove their chastity by touching him. Both tried their utmost, but, of course, the human wife could not reach so far, whereas the demon wife did and thus showed her real character. Vimaḷanātha had six hundred companions to mokṣa. Thirty sāgara of time had passed before his birth, and his height was sixty bow-shots.

14. AnantanāthaThere was an endless (ananta) thread which lay about quite powerless in Ayodhyā; but after the king's wife had given birth to the fourteenth Tīrthaṅkara, it became endued with power to heal diseases; this event, combined with the fact that his mother had seen an endless necklace of pearls, decided the child's name. Anantanātha's birth was divided from his predecessor's death by nine sāgara of time, and his height was fifty bow-shots. His sign is the hawk, or, according to the Digambara, the bear.

15. DharmanāthaThe fifteenth Tīrthaṅkara was born four sāgara of time after Anantanātha's Nirvāṇa, and his height was only forty-five bow-shots. His parents were the Rajput king and queen of Ratnapurī, and before his birth they exhibited such new zeal in the performance of their religious duties (dharma), that the child was given the name of Lord of Religion, Dharmanātha. He attained mokṣa with eight hundred monks. His sign is a thunderbolt.

16. ŚāntināthaAfter the nirvana of the ninth Tīrthaṅkara, Suvidhinātha, the Jaina faith disappeared until the birth of the tenth Tīrthaṅkara, who revived it; on his nirvana it disappeared again, but was revived on the birth of the eleventh; and this continued to be the case until the birth of Śāntinātha, the sixteenth Tīrthaṅkara, after which it never disappeared again. The parents of this Tīrthaṅkara ruled in Hastināpura three sāgara of time after Dharmanātha's nirvāṇa. It happened that plague was raging. Before Śāntinātha's birth, however, his mother was able to stay the course of the pestilence by sprinkling the sufferers with water; so when the child was born he was called Śāntinātha, or Lord of Peace (śānti). The special interest of this saint lies in the fact that he was the first Tīrthaṅkara to become a ċakravartī,^[57] or emperor of the whole of Bhārata (i. e. India). Śāntinātha's height was forty bow-shots, and his emblem is the deer. He attained mokṣa from Mt. Pārśvanātha in Bengal in company with nine hundred Sādhus. With the exception of four,^[58] all the Tīrthaṅkara passed to nirvāṇa from this hill.

17. Kun-
thunātha.After half a palya of time the seventeenth Tīrthaṅkara was born in Gajapurī, where his parents, King Śivarāja and Queen Śrīdevī, reigned. Before his birth his mother saw a heap (kuntha) of jewels; during his life people began to show greater kindness to insects (kunthu), and the power of his father's enemies was stunted (kuntha). Kunthunātha's sign was the goat, and he was thirty-five bow-shots in height. He, like his predecessor, became an emperor, and obtained mokṣa from Pārśvanātha, but accompanied by a thousand companions.

18. Ara-
nātha.Queen Devī, wife of King Sudarsana of Hastināpura, saw a vision of a bank of jewels before the birth of her son, the eighteenth Tīrthaṅkara, who was born a quarter palya of time after Kunthunātha. Aranātha was thirty bow-shots in height, his emblem is the third kind of svastika (the Nandāvartta), he was also an emperor, and he passed to mokṣa from Sameta Śikhara (Mt. Pārśvanātha) with a thousand monks.

19. Mal-
linātha.The nineteenth Tīrthaṅkara is the most interesting of all, for owing to deceitfulness in a previous life this saint was born as a woman;^[59] having, however, done all the twenty things that make an ascetic a Tīrthaṅkara, nothing could prevent his becoming one, but his previous deceitfulness resulted in his becoming a female Tīrthaṅkara. She was born in Mithilā, where her parents, King Kumbera and Queen Prabhāvatī, ruled. Before her birth her mother longed to wear a garland (malli) woven of the flowers of all seasons, and the gods and goddesses themselves brought the flowers to gratify her desire. Mallinātha's symbol is a water-jar, and she also passed to mokṣa from Sameta Śikhara. Her height was twenty-five bow-shots. The Digambara, who deny that any woman can pass to mokṣa without rebirth as a man, deny of course that Mallinātha could have been a woman. Another point of interest is that the time between the Tīrthaṅkara can now be measured by years, and this nineteenth Tīrthaṅkara was born a thousand crores of years after the eighteenth.

20. Munisuvrata.Before the birth of Munisuvrata, his mother, the wife of King Sumitra of Rājagṛiha, kept all the beautiful vows of Jainism (su vrata, good vows) as devoutly as if she had been an ordinary woman and not a queen; hence the child's name. His height was twenty bow-shots; he was born fiftyfour lakhs of years after the last Tīrthaṅkara. His parents, while Kṣatriya or Rajputs, belonged to the Hari dynasty, whereas all the other Tīrthaṅkara, save the twenty-second, belonged to the Ikṣvāku family. His symbol is the tortoise.

20. Na-
minātha.The twenty-first Tīrthaṅkara was born in Mathura after an interval of only six lakhs of years. His father. King Vijya, was engaged in an apparently hopeless warfare with his enemies, but the astrologers declared that if his wife, Queen Viprā, showed her face on the city wall (this was before the time of the zenana system) the enemy would bow down (nama) with fear and flee away. This all happened, and the child was named accordingly. Naminātha was fifteen bow-shots in height, his emblem is the blue lotus, and he attained mokṣa from Sameta Śikhara together with a thousand ascetics.

20. Ne-
minātha,
or Ariṣṭa
Nemi-
nātha.The twenty-second Tīrthaṅkara (like the twentieth) is always represented as black; before his birth his mother, the wife of Samudravijaya, king of Saurīpura, saw a wheel (nemi) of black jewels (ariṣṭa). Kṛiṣṇa and his brother Baḷadeva lived at this time, and were cousins of Neminātha's. This Tīrthaṅkara was ten bow-shots in height, and his sign was the conch shell. Unlike most of the other Tīrthaṅkara, he attained mokṣa from Girnār in Kāṭhiāwāḍ.

The twenty-third and twenty-fourth Tirthankara are respectively Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra.

The Followers of Mahāvīra.

Mahā-
vīra's
unruly
disciple
Gośāla.The peculiar temptations with which an ascetic's life are beset are illustrated for us in the life of Gośāla, an early antinomian. He seems to have been the head of a body of unclothed anchorites, a section of the Ājīvika monks, and joined forces with Mahāvīra whilst the latter was still practising austerities before the period of his enlightenment. Gośāla, Dr. Hoernle suggests in his exhaustive article on the Ājīvikas,^[60] may either have been moved by a desire to learn the tricks of Mahāvīra's trade, or else the strong stern personality of the great ascetic may have had an irresistible attraction for the weaker sensual nature. At any rate, for six years they lived together, but a permanent association was impossible between a man like Mahāvīra and one of Gośāla's tricky, unreliable disposition.

There seems no doubt that they separated owing to some act of unchastity on Gośāla's part, and this had the natural effect of opening Mahāvīra's eyes to the special temptation besetting wandering mendicants. An added element of bitterness would be caused by the disciple venturing to preach before the master felt himself qualified to do so, for whilst Mahāvīra waited twelve years before teaching his Way, Gośāla preached after only six.

It was probably owing to Gośāla's conduct that Mahāvīra AND DISCIPLES 59 added the vow of chastity to the four vows of Parsva- natha's order, and all through the Jaina scriptures one seems to find references to this unworthy disciple. ' A wise man should consider that these (heretics) do not live a life of chastity.' ^ ' In the assembly he pronounces holy (words), yet secretly he commits sins ; but the wise know him to be a deceiver and great rogue.' ^ A dialogue is given between a disciple of Mahavira's, called Ardraka, and Gosala, in which Gosala, hke many another impenitent, tries to defend himself by finding fault with his old leader, and takes up an antinomian position : ' according to our Law an ascetic, who lives alone and single, commits no sin if he uses cold water, eats seeds, accepts things pre- pared for him, and has intercourse with women.' ^ The references to Gosala in the Buddhist books, though slighter, bear out the same idea of his character. Dr. Hoernle mentions Buddha's well-known abhorrence of Gosala, and tells how Buddha classified the ascetic systems differing from, his own into those whose members lived in incontinency and those which could only be condemned as unsatisfying — placing Gosala amongst the former. Gosala obtained this his best-known name through having been born in a cowshed, but he is also known by another name, that of Mahkhali Putra, which the Jaina say was given to him because he was the illegitimate son of a monk. If there were this piteous taint in his blood it would account for his strange dual nature, his strivings, and his failure. After he left Mahavira, he and his followers seem to have lived in open defiance of all the laws of ascetic life, expressed or implied, and to have made their head-quarters in the premises of a potter woman in the town of Sravastl. There after sixteen years Mahavira found him and exposed his real character. Gosala had previously tried to justify himself by adopting not only ^ Sutra Kritdhgd, S. B. E., xlv, p. 245. ^ Ibid., xlv, p. 273. ^ Ibid., xlv, p. 411. 6o MAHAvIRA'S predfxessors an antinomian position, but also one of absolute fatalism, in which he declared that all things were absolutely fixed and so man was relieved of all moral responsibility. Now he brought forward another doctrine, that of re-animation, by which he explained to Mahavira that the old Gosala who had been a disciple of his was dead, and that he who now animated the body of Gosala was quite another person ; this theory, however, deceived nobody, and Go- sala, discredited in the eyes of the townspeople, fell lower and lower, and at last died as a fool dieth. Just before the end, however, the strange duality of his nature again asserted itself, and, acknowledging that all that Mahavira had said against him was true, and that he had left the true faith and preached a false one, he directed his own disciples to drag his body through the town by a rope for people to spit at, and to bury him with every mark of shame.-'- This command they naturally did not carry out, nor would it have been necessary for us so long after his death to have discussed this unhappy man, but for the profound efi'ect his life had on the formulation of Mahavira's doctrine. Gosala is of importance to those of us who are trying to understand Jainism for two reasons : the sin and shame of his life emphasized the need for stringent rules for the order ; and the doctrine of absolute fatalism was shown to result in non-moral conduct. Jainism avoids this determinism, as we shall see later, by teaching that, though karma decides all, we ourselves can affect our past karma by our present life. ^ Some Jaina believe that, because he so sincerely repented before his death, he went not to hell, but to one of the Devaloka, i.e. heavens, and is now, at the time of writing, in the Twelfth Devaloka, from

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CHAPTER V

HISTORY OF THE JAINA COMMUNITY

The Four Tīrtha.

During Mahāvīra's lifetime he attracted a great number of disciples, both men and women, and from these grew the four orders of his community: monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen.

Monks.Chief amongst his followers were fourteen thousand monks (or muni) and at the head of these were eleven chief disciples or Gaṇadhara whom Jaina compare to the twelve disciples of our Lord, Gośāla the twelfth corresponding to Judas. Mahāvīra had seen in the case of Gośāla and others the special temptations and dangers which beset ascetics in their wandering life, and he resolved to combat these as well as he could by organization and regulations. He therefore divided his fourteen thousand followers into nine regular schools called Gaṇa and placed each school under the headship of one of his chief disciples or Gaṇadhara. The leading Gaṇadhara had five hundred monks under them, but some of the others had only three hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Gautama was at the head of a school of five hundred, and so were his brothers Agnibhūti and Vāyubhūti, his other brother Akampita^[61] being at the head of three hundred scholars.

Sudharma was at the head of another school of five hundred monks.

Only two of these eleven Gaṇadhara, Gautama and Sudharma, survived Mahāvīra; the others attained Kevala jñāna and died of voluntary starvation at Rājagṛiha before their master's death.

All the present Jaina monks are considered to be the spiritual descendants of Sudharma, for the other Gaṇadhara left no disciples.

Nuns.Besides the fourteen thousand monks a great multitude of women followed Mahāvīra, and of these some thirty-six thousand, the Jaina say, actually left the world and became nuns. At their head (at least according to the Śvetāmbara) was Ċandana, a first cousin of Mahāvīra's, or as other accounts have it, his aunt.^[62]

In those troublous times acts of oppression and violence must have often occurred, and it was such an act that led to Ċandana's becoming a nun. Once, as a girl, the story runs, Ċandana was walking in an open garden, when a wicked man named Vidyādhara saw her and, fascinated by her beauty, carried her off, meaning to take her to his own home. On his way thither he began to realize how displeasing her presence in his house would be to his wife, so, without troubling to take her back to the garden where he had found her, he abandoned her in a forest. A hillman found her weeping there, took her to Kauśāmbī and sold her to a wealthy merchant named Vṛiṣabhasena, who installed her in his house against his wife's will. The wife grew more and more jealous of her, for Ċandana's beauty increased every day, and ill-treated her in every possible way, clothing her in rags, feeding her on broken meats, and often beating her. Mahāvīra came and preached in Kauśāmbī and poor Ċandana needed but little persuasion to convince her of how evil a place the world was; gladly renouncing it she joined his community and eventually became the head of the nuns.^[63]

Laymen.Mahāvīra's third order consisted of laymen; these Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/95 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/96 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/97 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/98 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/99 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/100 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/101 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/102 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/103 ^6 HISTORY OF THE Kalikacarya could, however, on his part produce wealth by magic, and by this means he persuaded the Scythian king to come to his aid with an army. They encamped at a safe distance of about fifteen miles from King Gardabhila, and when his protecting goddess began to sing, all the Scythian army shot arrows at her mouth and filled it so full that she was unable to utter a sound. The spell being broken, Gardabhila was easily captured, and Kali- kacarya's sister released. The king Gardabhila was even- tually forgiven and set at liberty ; he betook himself to a neighbouring forest, where he was finally devoured by a tiger, to the total extinction of his race. Kalikacarya is, however, specially remembered through the dispute which continues to this day about the keeping of Paj- jusana,^some Jaina sects holding that it should begin on the fourth and some on the fifth day of the month Bhadrapada. i The difference arose in this way : Kalikacarya once visited the king of Pentha (in the Dekkan) and asked him to come and listen to the discourses he was going to deliver at Pajjusana. The king said he would have come if it had been any day but the fifth (in those days Pajjusana only lasted for one day), but that being a special festival of Indra which he was bound to keep, he asked the saint to postpone the fast till the sixth. The ascetic, while declaring any postponement impossible, offered to arrange to hold it one day earher, on the fourth of Bhadrapada. This was accordingly done, and ever since then some sects ^ have begun the fast on the fourth and some on the fifth. The importance they give to this difference reminds one of the old ecclesiastical dispute about the date of Easter. According to the Jaina a learned ascetic, Siddhasena Divakara, the son of a Brahman minister, lived about this ^ Or Paryusana, the sacred festival at the close of the Jaina year. ^ The Tapagaccha observe the fourth, the SthanakavasI the fifth day, the Aiicalagaccha sometimes the fourth and sometimes the fifth. Occasionally owing to differing astrologers all sects observe the same day as the beginning of the fast. I JAINA COMMUNITY 77 time at the court of King Vikramaditya.^ There was another equally learned ascetic called Vriddhavadl, and these two were anxious to meet and discover whose learning entitled him to be regarded as the superior of the other. At last they did encounter each other, but unfortunately they met in a jungle where the only judges they could find to decide their cause were ignorant village cowherds. Siddhasena, fresh from the Sanskrit-loving court, began the dispute, but used so many Sanskrit words that the cowherds had no idea what he was talking about, and quickly gave the palm to Vriddhavadl who spoke in the simplest language and quoted many a shrewd rural jest and proverb ; so Siddhasena had to accept Vriddhavadl as his conqueror and guru. Siddhasena, however, still proud of his Sanskrit, formed the plan of translating all the Jaina scriptures from Magadhi (a language understood by the common people) into Sanskrit : but his guru showed him the sin it would be thus to place them out of the reach of ordinary folk, and as penance for the very idea he wandered about for twelve years without uttering a word. His importance to Jainism lies evidently in his failure to sanskritize either the language or the scriptures ; ^ but he is also credited with the conversion to Jainism of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain and of Devapala, king of Kumarapura. He is supposed to have died about 57 B.C. Two other events are supposed to have happened about this time, the defeat of the Buddhists in a great argument by a famous Jaina controversialist, an ascetic called Arya ' Vikramaditya, according to tradition, was king of Ujjain, and 'the golden age ' of Sanskrit literature is said to have coincided with his reign. He is now considered by many scholars to be a purely legendary monarch. ^ There is said to be always a marked difference between the speech of a Brahman and a Jaina, since the former use as many Sanskrit words as possible, and the latter, especially the Sthana- kavasl, use the simple vernacular. Khapuṭa who lived in Broach, and the founding of Śatruñjaya ^1 in the state of Pālitāṇā.

Vajra-
svāmī. The next spiritual leader ^2 of great importance for our purpose was Vajrasvāmī, the last and greatest of the Daśapūrvī. It was in his time that the sixth schism took place. A Jaina sādhu called Rohagupta ^3 taught that there are not seven but only three constituent elements of the earth, viz.: Jīva, Ajīva and Nojīva; the schism is accordingly called the Nojīva schism and is believed to have arisen in a. d. 71. A seventh schism, led by Goṣṭa Mahāl, also took place under Vajrasvāmī's rule. The Jaina believe that Vajrasvāmī was able to call up at will a magic carpet which conveyed him and his friends to any distance, and that once by its means he transplanted the whole community from a famine- stricken district to the town of Purī. The more enlightened Jaina say that this carpet really represents some modern mode of locomotion (steam engine, motor car, or aeroplane) the secret of whose construction Vajrasvāmī had anticipated. Vajrasvāmī had a famous disciple, Āryarakṣita, who had originally been a Brāhman and had studied all knowledge at Benares. His mother spurred him on to study the Jaina Pūrva, and whilst doing so he was converted to Jainism and learnt from Vajrasvāmī the whole of the nine-and-a-half Pūrva. He is famous amongst the Jaina for having arranged the Sūtra into four divisions that they might be the more easily understood.

Vajra-
sena.
The
Great
Schism We now come to the great division of the community. Vajrasvāmī was followed by Vajrasena, and under his leadership the Digambara finally separated from the main community. The new Head had not the personality of his

^1 Śatruñjaya, the Jaina say, was built by a monk who had the power of rising through the air, and by a disciple of his who had the power of creating gold. This fortunate conjunction of talents has resulted in one of the loveliest temple cities in the world.

2 Indradinna had been followed by Dinnasūri, and he by Siṁhagiri, and then came Vajrasvāmī.

^3 Rohagupta had a disciple called Kaṇāda who was, according to the Jaina, the founder of the famous Vaiśeṣika philosophy. predecessors, and was probably not strong enough to hold the balance between two contending parties; at any rate the Digambara now hived off. Differing dates are given for the separation: the Śvetāmbara believe it to have taken place in A. D. 142, the Sthānakavāsī in a. d. 83, whilst Dr. Hoernle places the date about a. d. 79 or 82.

The Śvetāmbara declare that the opposition sect was really founded (like many another sect since!) in a fit of temper, and give the following account of how it occurred. A certain Śivabhūti, who had been in the service of the king of Rathavīrapura, decided to become a Jaina ascetic. On the day of his initiation the king gave him a most costly and beautiful blanket as a farewell present. Seeing how over-fond he was of it, his guru advised him to return the gift, but he refused; whereupon, to save him from the snare, the guru during his absence tore the blanket into small pieces. Śivabhūti was so angry when he found what had happened that he declared that if he might not keep his blanket he would keep no covering at all, but would wander naked through the world like the Lord Mahāvīra himself. His first two disciples were Kauṇḍinya and Kattavīra. His sister Uttarā also wanted to follow him, but, seeing that it was impossible for a woman to go about nude, Śivabhūti refused to allow her to join him and declared that no woman could attain mokṣa without rebirth as a man.

The probability is that there had always been two parties in the community: the older and weaker section, who wore clothes and dated from Pārśvanātha's time, and who were called the Sthavira kalpa (the spiritual ancestors of the Śvetāmbara); and the Jina kalpa, or Puritans, who kept the extreme letter of the law as Mahāvīra had done, and who are the forerunners of the Digambara.

The five main tenets of the Digambara in which they oppose the Śvetāmbara views ^1 are: that the Tīrthaṇkara

^1 They also differ on many points of ritual and custom. Differ-
ences be-
tween
Svetain-
bara and
Digam-
bara. must be represented as nude and unadorned, and with downcast eyes ; that women cannot obtain moksa ; that Mahavira never married ; that once a saint had obtained Kevala jnana he needed no food, but could sustain Hfe without eating ; and finally the great point over which the split occurred, that ascetics must be entirely nude, a decision which condemns the one or two Digambara ascetics now existing to live in the strict seclusion of a forest, somewhat to the relief of the reformers of their sect, who are thus saved from their interference. ^1

Hari-
bhadra
Sūri There were several spiritual leaders of no great moment who followed Vajrasena,^2 but the next of real importance was the great Haribhadra Sūri. Haribhadra was originally a learned Brāhman and inordinately proud of his knowledge. He was converted to Jainism through hearing a Jaina nun named Yakanī recite a śloka which Haribhadra could not understand; the nun referred him to her guru, but the guru refused to explain it unless the inquirer first received initiation as a Jaina monk, which he accordingly did. Two of Haribhadra's nephews, Haṁsa and Paramahaṁsa, became his disciples, and later on he sent

^1 The Digambara also differ on certain historical details. The following, according to some authorities, is the list of Āċārya who came after Jambū Svāmī ; this list carries their records up to A.D. 216. Visnu, Nandimitra, Aparajita, Govardhana and Bhadrabahu, who all knew the twelve Ahga. These were followed by Visakhacarya, Paustilacarya, Ksatriya, Jayasena, Nagasena, Siddhartha, Dhritisena, Vijaya, Buddhimana, Ganadeva and Dharmasena ; all these eleven knew eleven Anga and ten Purva. Naksatra, Jayapala, Pandu, Dharmasena and Kamsacarya, who followed, knew only the texts of eleven Anga. Then came four men, Subhadeva, Yasobhadra, Mahlyasa and Lokacarya, who knew only one Anga.

^ His immediate follower was Candrasuri, under whom the name of the community was changed from Kodlgaccha to Candragaccha, only to be renamed VanavasTgaccha under the next leader, Samanta- bhadrasuri, owing to that ascetic's love of living in the forest.

Manadeva was the next Head of the community. He was waited on by four goddesses, and composed many mantras (called sdntisioira), against the plague that raged in Taxila. He was followed by Manatuiiga, the author of the Bhaktamarastotra. This stotra of forty- four verses was so powerful that each verse when repeated could break open a locked door ! them disguised to study Buddhist doctrines in order to refute them on their return. The Buddhist monks, however, were suspicious of the orthodoxy of these new inquirers and drew images of the Tīrthaṅkara on the steps of their monastery to see if they would tread on them. But the two Jaina boys neatly turned the tables by adding the sacred thread ^1 to the sketches and so making them representations of Buddha; this done, they trod on them happily enough. Enraged at this insult to their great leader, the Buddhist monks slew the lads. Haribhadra, maddened at their loss, determined to slay all the monks, some 1,444, in boiling oil by means of his occult powers, but was stopped in time by his guru. ^2 He repented deeply of his hasty resolve, and to expiate it he wrote no less than 1,444 books on various subjects, some of which remain to this day.

Siddha-
sūri. Siddhasūri ^3 was the next great head of the community; he was the grandson of a Prime Minister of Śrīmāla (once the capital of Gujarāt) and the cousin of the famous Sanskrit poet Māgha. Siddhasūri's conversion happened on this wise. After his marriage he became a great gambler, and his wife grieved sorely over his absences from home. One night she was sitting up as usual waiting for his return, when her mother-in-law, seeing her weeping, asked her to go to sleep and said she would sit up for her son. When Siddhasūri returned long after midnight, his mother refused to open the door and told him to go and spend the night anywhere he could gain a welcome, for there was no admittance for him there. Deeply hurt, he sought entrance at the only open door he could find, which happened to be that of a Jaina Apāsaro.^4 The sādhus were all sitting on the floor,

^1 The Jaina never wear the sacred thread as the Buddhists do. The Brāhmans of course always wear it from their eighth year.

^2 Bhandarkar gives a different account in his Search after Jaina MSS ., 1883, p. 141, where it is said that Haribhadra actually killed the monks. This the Jaina indignantly deny.

'3 His date is variously given as A.D. 536 and 539.

^4 The name given to a Jaina meeting-house and monks' lodging. recalling what they had learnt during the day, and their head, the gargarisi, as he was called, told him that before he could join their company he must become a sadhu too. Siddhasuri instantly resolved to do so : he obtained his father's permission, though with great difficulty, and was initiated on the following morning.^1 He studied Jainism deeply and became a great scholar, writing a commentary on the Upadesamala of Dharmadasagani. He then wished to study Buddhism and asked the gargarisi's permission to go to a Buddhist monastery for this purpose. The gargarisi agreed, though with misgivings, but stipulated that if ever Siddhasuri felt he was being drawn to the Buddhist faith, he should come back and see him at least once before he joined their order. It fell out as the gargarisi had feared; the Buddhists were so struck with Siddhasuri's learning that they proposed that he should turn Buddhist and become their Acarya, Remembering his promise, he returned home to see the gargarisi once again ; he was, however, engaged, and asked Siddhasuri to read a certain book, the Lalitavi- stara by Haribhadrasuri, whilst he waited. As he read it, repentance overtook him ; he was again convinced of the soundness of the Jaina faith, sought forgiveness from the gargarisi, performed the penance imposed and became a sound Jaina. Eventually he rose to the position of Acarya and strove by every means in his power to spread the faith.

Śīlaguṇa-
sūri. The biographies of the successive leaders of the com- munity need not detain us, but about two hundred years later there arose a great sadhu named Silagunasuri, who is famous as the restorer of the Cavada dynasty. Once when wandering as a sadhu in the jungle between Wadhwan and Kadipatana he saw a cradle hanging from a tree with a baby in it. By his knowledge of palmistry he at once discovered that this forlorn child would some day be a king. The child's mother appeared and told him that she was the

^1 The Jaina now wish to institute a period of testing and training

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CHAPTER VI

INTRODUCTION TO JAINA PHILOSOPHY

A well-known authority has said that it is doubtful whether Jainism can truthfully claim to have contributed a single new thought of value to the sum of philosophy. However that may be, it is absolutely necessary to follow this intricate system through all those long lists with their divisions and subdivisions in which the Jaina love to classify and arrange their thought, if one would understand how they think of the soul (jīva) and the means by which it may free itself from the consequence of action and obtain deliverance; for this is the chief content of Jaina philosophy. A special interest to the student of Jaina thought lies in trying to guess—for as yet we are only in the guessing stage—from whence the Jaina have gleaned their various ideas. The animistic element bulks largely in all Indian thought, and one proof of the antiquity of Jainism is the way in which it has incorporated animistic beliefs into its 'systematic theology'; for, as we shall see when we come to discuss the nine categories, the system is not only animistic but hylozoistic. The Jaina, in common with the Buddhists, seem to have accepted as the ground-work of their belief the philosophy of the Brāhman Sannyāsin. They incorporated into their faith the doctrines of transmigration and karma^[64] without putting a special stamp on either; but the doctrine of non-killing (ahiṁsā), which they also borrowed, they exalted to a position of primary importance, and they laid an entirely new emphasis on the value of austerity both inward and outward. Like Buddhism and Brāhmanism, Jainism might be defined as a 'way of escape' not from death but from life; but unlike either of them, it hopes to escape not into nothingness nor into absorption, but into a state of being without qualities, emotions, or relations, and removed from the possibility of rebirth. It is interesting to look at Jainism in relation to the six schools of Indian philosophy. In reference to them the Jaina quote the old story of six blind men who each laid their hands on a different part of an elephant and tried to describe the whole animal. The man who held the ear thought the creature resembled a winnowing-fan, the holder of the leg imagined that he was clinging to a big round pillar, and similarly each opinion differed, but the owner who saw the whole explained that each had only a portion of the truth. The six men represent the six schools, and the owner is in their view of course Jainism. The Jaina hold in fact that the six schools of philosophy are part and parcel of one organic whole, and that if one be taken by itself it becomes a false doctrine. One of the great questions amongst the schools is as to whether an effect is the same as its material cause or pre-exists in that cause and is only made manifest by the operation which that cause undergoes (this is the Satkārya doctrine of the Sāṅkhya and the Vedānta); or whether the effect is something new and did not exist before (which is the Asatkārya doctrine held by the Vaiśeṣika). On this point Jainism shows its usual comprehensiveness, and believing that both views were linked together from time without beginning, says that 'an effect pre-exists in the cause in one sense and is a new thing in another. If you look at an effect such as a jar as a mere substance, the substance is the same as in the loose earth of which the jar is made; but if you look at the jar as a modification, it is new and did not exist when the earth was in the condition of loose particles'.^[65]

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CHAPTER VII

THE NINE CATEGORIES OF FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS

First Category: Jīva.

The Jaina consider that the foundation of true philosophy consists of nine categories.^[66] 'He who truly believes the true teaching of the fundamental truths possesses righteousness,' says the Uttarādhyayana.^[67]

All three sects of Jaina, however much they may differ with regard to the eyes and adornments of their idols, or as to whether they should have idols at all, agree as to these principles, though the Digambara number them differently, and by including two of them under other heads make the categories seven instead of nine.

The first of these nine categories (Nava Tattva) is always given as jīva, a word which is varyingly used to connote life, vitality, soul, or consciousness. When jīva is used as equivalent to 'soul' it differs from the Brāhmanic idea of 'soul', for the Jaina believe that whilst the knowledge possessed by the jīva (or ātmā) may be boundless, the jīva itself is limited; whilst followers of the Sāṅkhya, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools believe the soul to be co-extensive with the universe. Both Brāhmans and Jaina believe, in contradistinction to the Buddhists, that the soul is absolute and permanent, and according to the Jaina it is the jīva which suffers or enjoys the fruits of its deeds, and then, in consequence of the karma it has acquired, goes through the succession of rebirths, and finally, obtaining freedom through the destruction of its karma, soars upwards to mokṣa.

A famous śloka of the great Hemāċārya thus describes the characteristics of the jīva:

It performs different kinds of actions, it reaps the fruit of those actions, it circles round returning again; these and none other are the characteristics of the soul.

Jīva has further been described as a conscious substance, capable of development, imperceptible to the senses, an active agent, and as big as the body it animates.^[68]

In a most interesting note Dr. Jacobi suggests that the Jaina have arrived 'at their concept of soul, not through the search after the Self, the self-existing unchangeable principle in the ever-changing world of phenomena, but through the perception of life. For the most general Jaina term for soul is life (jīva), which is identical with self (āyā, ātman)';^[69] and the way in which the category jīva is divided and subdivided, building up from the lesser to the more developed life, certainly bears out Dr. Jacobi's contention; for the Jaina lay stress on Life not Self.

Sometimes jīva itself is considered as a division of Dravya (or substance), its chief characteristic being ċaitanya (consciousness).

The
powers or
Prāṇa
possessed
by Jīva.This conscious sentient principle, jīva or ātmā, so long as it feels desire, hatred and other attachments, and is fettered by karma, undergoes continual reincarnations. In each new birth it makes its home in a new form, and there assumes those bodily powers or prāṇa^[70] which its various actions in previous births have entitled it to possess, for the possession or non-possession of any faculty depends on karma. The most perfectly developed jīva has ten prāṇa and the lowest type must possess at least four. Of these ten prāṇa, five are called Indriya prāṇa, since they relate to the senses. They are the sense of touch (Sparśendriya); the sense of taste (Rasendriya); the sense of smell (Ghrāṇendriya); the sense of sight (Ċakṣurindriya); the sense of hearing (Śravaṇendriya).

There are also three other powers known as Baḷa prāṇa: bodily power (Kayabaḷa), speech (Vaċanabaḷa)and mind (Manabaḷa). The ninth Prāṇa, Ānapāna prāṇa (or Śvāsoċċhvāsa) gives the powers of respiration; and the tenth prāṇa, Āyu prāṇa, is the possession of the allotted span of life during which the jīva has to sustain a particular bodily form.

The
divisions
of Jīva
into:—
i. Two
classes.In order to understand Jīva more fully, the Jaina divide it according to the class of beings in which its past karma may force it for a time to take up its abode. The first closes division which they make is into Siddha and Saṁsārī. A man's karma may force him to dwell in some being still struggling with all the troubles of this present world, sullied by contact with Ajīva (insentient matter), and having further rebirths to undergo before he can reach mokṣa; or he may have attained deliverance and become a Siddha. The Saṁsārī live in the world, but the Siddha, or perfected ones, who are freed from karma, live in a place called Īṣatprāgbhāra, which consists of pure white gold and has the form of an open umbrella.^[71] The beings who dwell there have no visible form, but consist of Life throughout and possess paramount happiness which admits of no comparison,

ii. Three
classes.We have divided Life into two classes: Siddha and Saṁsārī, perfected and unperfected; we may now, the Jaina say, divide Saṁsārī life into three divisions: male, female and neuter.^[72]

iii. Four
classes.Or again, we may regard it in four ways, according to the place where it was born. Jīva born in hell are called Nārakī; those born in a state lower than human and inhabiting the bodies of insects, birds, reptiles, animals, or plants are named Tiryañċ; Manuṣya are jīva born as human beings; and those who are born as spirits, whether gods or demons,^[73] are called Devatā. These four possible places of birth are shown in the accompanying Svastika sign, which is constantly seen in Jaina books and temples.

iv. Five
classes.Jīva may be classified in five ways, according to the iv. Five number of senses it possesses, as Ekendriya, Be-indriya,^[74] Tri-indriya, Ċorendriya, and Pañċendriya.^[75]

iv (a).
Ekendri-
ya jīva.Ekendriya jīva possess only one sense, the sense of touch, but have four prāṇa: touch, body, the power of exhaling and inhaling, and the allotted term of life.

They are subdivided into Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, and Vanaspatikāya. Things belonging to the earth, such as stones,^[76] lumps of clay, salts, chalk, diamonds and other minerals, are called Pṛithvīkāya ekendriya. Though ordinary persons are unable to perceive in these the power of suffering, yet a Kevalī can do so, for he sees that they have four prāṇa, including the power of breathing and of touch. The longest span for which a jīva can be compelled to inhabit such a lodging is twenty-two thousand years, and the shortest time less than forty-eight moments,^[77] but as the jīva's karma is gradually exhausted, it will be reborn into happier conditions.^[78] These earth lives are also divided into those which we can see and those which are invisible to the human eye. By ill-treating any earth life we deprive ourselves of our chance of happiness and perfect wisdom.

The Jaina believe that water^[79] itself (not, as is so often supposed, the animalculae living in it) is inhabited by Ekendriya jīva called Apakāya ekendriya. Apakāya include rain, dew, fog, melted snow, melted hail, &c. The shortest span a jīva can pass in water is a moment,^[80] though more usually it will have to wait there for rebirth for at least forty-eight moments; but the longest time its karma can condemn it to this imprisonment is seven thousand years. It is this belief in the power of inflicting pain on water that makes Jaina monks so particular about only taking it when it has been boiled and strained and prevents some of them using it at all for toilet purposes!

A man's karma again may force him to become a Teukāya ekendriya, or fire life, and he may have to pass into an ordinary fire, the light of a lamp, a magnet, electricity, a meteor, flintstone sparks, a forest conflagration, or a submarine fire,^[81] but one can only be condemned to be a fire life for a period varying from one instant^[82] to three days (i.e. seventy-two hours). A difference of opinion exists amongst Jaina as to whether one can be condemned to become lightning or not, for it does not seem to be known for certain whether or no Teukaya exists in lightning.^[83]

Again, all sorts of wind, such as cyclones, whirlwinds, monsoons, west winds and trade-winds, are thought of as inhabited by what are called Vāyukāya ekendriya jīva. It is difficult for us to understand that wind has a body and can be made to suffer pain, but all this is plain to a Kevalī. The period a jīva may spend as wind varies according to his karma from one instant to three thousand years.

All vegetable life, or Vanaspatikāya, also possesses but one indriya. These jīva are divided into two classes: Pratyeka, or life such as that of a tree (e. g. an orange or mango tree), whose various branches, fruits and leaves possess life derived from it, and Sādhāraṇa, the life possessed by potatoes,^[84] onions, carrots, figs, &c. Strict Jaina will not eat any of the latter class, for example, potatoes, beet, onions, &c., because more than one jīva has taken up its lodging there; but they will take oranges and mangoes, once they are ripe, for then they are inhabited by only one life. Life as a vegetable^[85] may last from one instant to ten thousand years.

iv (b). Be-
indriyaAscending the scale, we come to jīva possessing two senses (or Be-indriya), that of taste as well as that of touch, and having six prāṇa: taste, touch, body, the power of exhaling and inhaling, an allotted term of life, and speech. Such are animalculae, worms, things living in shells, leeches, earth-worms. No one can be condemned to be a Be-indriya for longer than twelve years.

A strict Jaina abstains from killing anything even in the Ekendriya class, but the actual vow of Ahiṁsa or Non-killing for laymen starts from the Be-indriya class. Monks vow not to kill anything in the Ekendriya class, and hence refuse to touch water, clay, a clod of earth, fire, &c. They cannot of course help breathing air, but to hurt it as little as possible they cover their mouths with a cloth. Monks never snap their fingers, or swing or fan themselves, lest they should injure air. No point in Jainism has been more misunderstood than this, even scholars^[86] supposing the mouth-cloth to be worn to prevent the taking of animal life, whereas it is to prevent the taking of air life.

iv (c).
Tri-in-
driya.In the next highest class, Tri-indriya, are placed all those beings that in addition to the sense of touch and taste have also the sense of smell, and so possess three indriya and seven prāṇa. In this class are red ants, white ants, black ants, bugs and moths. A Jaina told me that in order to please the insects of this class a devout householder when he finds vermin will often place them on one particular bedstead and then pay some poor person from four to six annas to spend the night on that bedstead! Others, however, deny this. Of course no true Jaina will kill vermin, but will carefully remove it from his body or house to some shady place outside where it can dwell in safety. They say that, far from killing vermin, they are bound to protect it, as it has been created through their lack of cleanliness. No one's karma can force him to pass into this class of being for more than forty-nine days, or for less than an instant of time.

iv (d).
Ċoren-
driya.Beings still higher in the scale are the Ċorendriya, those possessed of the four senses of touch, taste, smell and sight; these of course have eight prāṇa. Wasps, scorpions, mosquitoes, gnats, flies, locusts and butterflies should be included under this heading, and also, according to some Jaina, moths, which are, however, often classed as Tri-indriya. Beings cannot be kept in this division for longer than six months without rebirth.

iv (e). Pañċen-
driya.The extra sense added to the jīva in the next class is that of hearing; and these Pañċendriya should therefore, to correspond, be possessed of nine prana. Some, however, have an extra prana added, that of mind, and these are called Saṁjñī pañċendriya, whilst the rest who have only nine are called Asaṁjñī. There are four divisions of the Pañċendriya: hell beings, lower animals, human beings and demigods. Of these the hell beings, human beings and demigods are possessed of intelligence, and so are certain creatures such as cows, buffaloes and other domestic animals; whilst frogs, fish and disease germs have no intelligence, for these are all self-created!

Germs which are thus classified in a way that seems strange to us as Pañċendriya are of great importance in Jaina philosophy. When engaging in Pratikramaṇa (or Paḍīkamaṇuṁ), i. e. Confession, Jaina think of the sins they may have committed against any being possessing any indriya and ask forgiveness. At this time they also think of any germs which they may have created by sinning against the laws of sanitation in fourteen specified ways. If through a man's carelessness or insanitary habits germs should have multiplied and infection spread, Mahāvīra declared him to be guilty of a sin as grave as that of murder.

The minimum of time which a being may be sentenced to spend as a hell being or a demigod is ten thousand years, and it may extend to thirty-three sāgaropama. In the case of human beings (including germs, which are ranked as humans!) and lower animals, the period may extend from one instant to three palya of time.

We have already followed the Jaina as they divided Jīva, in two, in three, in four, and lastly in five ways. v. Six
classes.We now come to the six ways in which Jīva may be divided, namely, into Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, Vanaspatikāya, and Trasakāya. Of these we have studied earth, water, fire, wind and vegetable lives, so it only remains for us to look at Trasakāya. The Jaina say that in the class of Trasakāya are included all lives that have the power of motion and which, when swayed by trāsa (dread), can try and get out of danger. All lives possessing two or more indriya are included under this heading as Trasakāya or mobile, whilst earth, water, fire, air and vegetable are considered immobile.

vi. Seven
classes.Again, Jīva may be classified in seven ways: hell beings (which are all neuter!), male lower animals, female lower animals, male human beings, female human beings, male demigods and female demigods.

vii. Eight
classes.This last is perhaps a somewhat artificial classification introduced for the sake of symmetry, but when we come to the next series, where Jīva is divided into eight classes, we touch on one of the most important points in Jaina philosophy, and one which it shares with the followers of Gośāla. The Jaina say Jīva may be divided into eight classes according to the six Leśyā^[87] by which it is swayed, and according to whether it is swayed by any emotion or not.^[88] These emotions affect the colour of the soul they govern just as a crystal is coloured by the hue of the substance on which it rests.

vii (a).Beings in the first class, or Saleśī, include all who are yet swayed by any of the three good or three bad emotions.

vii (b).Kṛiṣṇaleśyā is the worst of the three bad emotions, and it is described as being black as a thunder-cloud, bitter as a Neem tree, smelling like a dead cow, and rougher than a saw to the touch. Jīva, under the direction of this so graphically described bad temper, accumulate karma by all sorts of cruel and violent acts without stopping to think of the consequences. All the emotions last for differing periods according to whether they influence a god, a hell being, or a man.

vii. (c). In the third division are all those ruled by Nīlaleśyā. This emotion is less evil than the last, though it is still evil enough; its colour is blue as indigo, its taste more pungent than pepper, it still has the odour of a dead cow about it, and its roughness is as bad as ever. A man under its influence is envious of the good qualities of others; he will not only not perform austerities or acquire knowledge himself, but tries to hinder others from doing so; and he is lazy, gluttonous, and wanting in modesty. Such a man thinks only of his own happiness, and pursuing only his own pleasure is continually beset by evil thoughts and purposes.

vii. (d). The last wicked emotion that may lead men to do evil is called Kāpotaleśyā. It is grey in colour like a dove, as bitter of flavour as an unripe mango, and of as evil an odour and as rough to touch as its predecessors. A man under its command becomes crooked in thought and deed, he develops into a thief and a liar, loves intrigue, and delights to expose the bad qualities of others whilst concealing his own faults. It is torment to such a person to see others prosperous or wealthy.

vii. (e). There are three good emotions whose scent is like to fragrant flowers and whose touch is as soft as butter, and these govern three more classes of beings. The first good emotion, Tejoleśyā, is red like the rising sun and sweeter to the taste than ripe mangoes. It removes all evil thoughts from the jīva under its sway as dawn destroys the darkness of night, and all under its influence are bright and happy. Men governed by it are firm in their religion, afraid of sinning, anxious to keep the law, desirous of getting knowledge, humble and free from curiosity, straight- forward and righteous.

vii (f).The second good emotion takes its name, Padmaleśyā, from the lotus-flower, for jīva beneath its dominion open their hearts to all good things as lotus lilies expand to the sun. Its colour is yellow,^[89] and its taste is better than honey. Through its power a man controls anger, pride, deceit and avarice, and gains as a reward a quiet mind, whose thoughts are always calm and collected.

vii (g).The last emotion, the Śuklaleśyā, is the highest of all; it is as white as pearls, and its taste sweeter than sugar. Love and hatred disappear when a man is under its influence, and he feels in harmony with all nature. Knowledge is now complete, austerity finished and char- acter perfected, for, governed by it, the mind itself becomes a sun and has no stain of evil and, unbarred by karma, the way lies open to mokṣa.

vii (h).The eighth class of jīva are called Aleśī, for they have done with all feeling and completely stultified everything in their personality which might respond to emotion. Only the Siddha are to be found in this class.

viii. Nine
classes.The Jaina divide Jīva again in nine ways : Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, Vanaspatikāya, Be-indriya, Tri-indriya, Ċorendriya, and Pañċendriya, but all these have already been discussed, and this division is only made for the sake of symmetry.

ix. Ten
classes. When Jīva is classified in ten ways, the five old divi- sions we already know of (Ekendriya, &c.) are used, but each of these is subdivided into two classes, Paryāptā and Aparyāptā, according as they have or have not all the Paryāpti. There are six of these paryāpti: āhāra, the seed of life; śarīra, the body; indriya, the senses; śvāsoċċhvāsa, breathing; bhāṣā, speech; and mana,^[90] intel- lect ; and in this order the Jaina believe the jīva develops them as it passes by transmigration from life to life. The resemblance between paryāpti and prāṇa will be noticed. A Jaina'sādhu told the writer that the peculiarity of paryāpti consisted in the fact that when a jīva migrated from one life to another, it could obtain these paryāpti in the space of forty-eight minutes. Others, however, say that paryāpti and prāṇa are practically identical. Some jiva have all six paryāpti, some five, and some four; but none can have less than four; if a jīva dies before it attains the number decreed for it, it is classed as Aparyāptā.

x. Eleven
classes.When Jīva is classified in eleven ways, to the first four orders of indriya are added the three subdivisions of Pañċendriya (nārakī, tiryañċ and manuṣya) which we have already discussed, and then to these are added the four subdivisions of demi-gods, or Deva.^[91] Jaina subdivide their gods into Bhavanapati, the lords of the lower parts of the earth, who are often serpents of various kinds; Vyantara, evil spirits such as ghosts, witches, goblins, &c.; Jyotiṣī, who live in 'planets', under which are included sun, moon, and stars; and Vaimānika, or residents of celestial worlds, which are sometimes larger and sometimes smaller than our world.

xi.
Twelve
classes.The twelve ways in which Jiva can be looked at are xi. made up of Pṛithvīkāya, Apakāya, Teukāya, Vāyukāya, and Vanaspatikāya (i.e. the five divisions of Ekendriya), Trasakāya (the collective name for the last four indriya), and the subdivision of each of these six classes into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā.

xii.
Thirteen
classes.The thirteen ways are similarly artificially formed by xii. dividing the six Leśyā into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā and adding Aleśī.

xiii.
Fourteen
classes.In the fourteen-fold division the five orders of Indriya are divided into Paryāptā and Aparyāptā, but Ekendriya are divided into two new classes: Sūkṣma ekendriya and Bādara ekendriya. In the first of these are lives so minute that they can never be seen, killed, or destroyed, whilst those of the Bādara ekendriya can be killed or destroyed, and can sometimes be perceived. To make up the number to fourteen the two divisions of the fifth class, Saṁjñī and Asaṁjñī, are included.

The Second Category: Ajīva.

The second great Tattva of the Jaina deals with Ajīva (things inanimate), and is in all respects the opposite of Jīva. Until jīva is freed from one particular division (pudgaḷa) of ajīva, it is impossible for it to progress towards deliverance. The union of jīva with ajīva is never so absolutely complete as to make their separation impossible. Ajīva is divided into two main classes: Arūpī (without form) and Rūpī (with form). Arūpī ajīva has four great subdivisions: Dharmāstikāya,^[92] Adharmāstikāya, Ākāśāstikāya and Kāḷa.^[95]

Dharmā-
stikāya.Dharmāstikāya helps the jīva associated with pudgaḷa^[96] progress just as (to use their own illustration) water helps on the movements of a fish. It is divided into three classes: Skandha, Deśa, and Pradeśa. The whole power of motion is called skandha; a large fraction of it is called deśa as long as it is linked with skandha; while pradeśa is a small fraction of deśa. The Jaina declare that they had so thoroughly studied the laws of motion that they were cognizant of the law of gravity long before Sir Isaac Newton discovered it.

Adhar-
māsti-
kāya.Adharmāstikāya the Jaina explain by an illustration Adharof a man walking along a road on a hot day; he sees the shadow of a tree, and the shadow first attracts him to seek its shelter, and then keeps him quietly resting under it. So Adharmāstikāya without any movement on its part first attracts and then keeps motionless the one attracted. It has the same divisions of skandha, deśa, and pradeśa as Dharmāstikāya.

Ākāśāsti-
kāya.The third subdivision of Arūpī Ajīva is Ākāśāstikāya, or that which gives space and makes room. If, for example, a lamp is lighted, it is Ākāśāstikāya which gives space for its beams to shine in; if a nail be knocked into a wall, it is Ākāśāstikāya which gives it space to go into the wall. Again, if a lump of sugar is dropped into a cup of water and melts, the Jaina declare that the water remains water and the sugar sugar, but that a hidden power gives the sugar room to melt, and this power is Ākāśāstikāya. As a house affords room for its residents, so Ākāśāstikāya gives space for Ajīva to dwell in. Ākāśāstikāya is also divided into skandha, deśa, and pradeśa, but the skandha of Ākāśāstikāya includes space in the heavens as well as on the earth.

Kāḷa.The real nature of Kāḷa or time (the fourth division of Arūpī Ajīva) can only, according to the Jaina, be understood by the initiated. To the worldling Kala bears the connotation of 'time',^[97] and he divides and subdivides it into seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, &c. But to the initiated Kāḷa is indivisible,^[98] and is that which is continually making old things new and new things old.^[99] As an illustration, the Jaina quote the fate of a jīva or soul which may be forced by its karma to inhabit the body of a child. The child grows up into a young man, and finally dies in old age, and the jīva is forced to inhabit afresh the body of another infant. The jīva remains the same, but the power that made its covering body at one time old and then young again is Kāḷa. As jīva in this sense is indivisible, it cannot have the divisions of skandha, deśa, and pradeśa.

All these four divisions of Arūpī ajīva are further subdivided with regard to Dravya (substance), Kṣetra (place), Kāḷa (time), Bhāva (nature), and Guṇa (qualities). For instance, Dharmāstikāya is considered of one substance; its place is the seven lower worlds, including the worlds of the serpents, this world, and the worlds of the demi-gods; with regard to time, it is without beginning and without end; its nature is without colour, without smell, without taste, imperceptible to touch, and without form; its quality is that it helps motion. Adharmāstikāya when looked at in this way agrees with Dharmāstikāya in every point, excepting that its special quality is to arrest motion. Ākāśāstikāya differs in that it has its place in both Loka and Aloka, and that its quality is to afford space. Kāḷa with regard to place is found in two-and-a-half continents only (i.e. Jambūdvīpa, Dhātakī Khaṇḍa and half of Puṣkara), and its quality is to make old things new and new things old. In this way they make up twenty divisions, and sometimes thirty by skandha, deśa, and pradeśa, out of the four original divisions of Arūpī ajīva, without, however, adding enough new material to make it worth our while to follow out the labyrinth.

Pudgaḷās-
tikāyaThe Rūpī division of Ajīva contains only Pudgaḷāstikāya, or matter which possesses colour, smell, taste and form, and is perceptible to touch. Pudgaḷa can be consumed or destroyed, and it may decay or alter its form. Where there is no pudgaḷa present, none of the five primary colours, black, green (or blue), red, white, or yellow, can be present, and so, for instance, a Siddha who is freed from pudgaḷa is freed from colour also. The smells of pudgaḷa, the Jaina say, are of two kinds, pleasing and unpleasing,^[100] and a Siddha being free from pudgaḷa is also free from odour.

Pudgaḷa may have any of the five flavours: pungent, bitter, astringent, sour, or sweet. It may be of five shapes: circular, globular, triangular, square, or oblong, i.e. 'stretched out like a log lying on the earth.' A Siddha, of course, is freed from all shape.

There are eight kinds of 'touch' that pudgaḷa may have: it may be light or heavy, hot or cold, rough or smooth, wet or dry; but a Siddha can possess none of these qualities.

Jaina indulge their genius for subdivision by dividing each colour by the two smells, five flavours and eight touches, and then again they divide each smell by the five colours, five tastes and eight touches, and so on, till they get 560 divisions out of pudgaḷa.

Pudgaḷa is also divided into four classes: Skandha, Deśa, Pradeśa, and Paramāṇu (i.e. the smallest particle). Skandha, deśa, and pradeśa are linked together, but paramāṇu is separate and indivisible.

The pudgaḷa enter and leave our bodies incessantly, and are infinitely more numerous than jīva. As we shall see later, the Jaina believe that karma arises out of pudgaḷa . The Jaina hold that it is through Jīva and these five divisions of Ajīva (Dharmāstikāya, Adharmāstikāya, Ākāśāstikāya, Kāḷa, and Pudgaḷāstikāya) that the universe exists, and that these serve instead of a creator, whose existence they do not acknowledge.

The Third Category: Puṇya.

Another of the great Tattva deals with Puṇya or merit.^[101] The actions which lead to the good karma which bring peace of mind are called puṇya, and there are nine ways of performing these actions.

i. Anna
puṇya.If we give food to deserving people who are hungry, weak, destitute of help and needy, we perform Anna puṇya. The greatest merit is gained when the food is given to monks or nuns, but these must be Jaina ascetics (not Hindu for instance), and in order to gain the fullest benefit from charity the food must be given in such a way as not to involve hiṁsā.^[102] It will be remembered that Mahāvīra in a previous birth, when a woodcutter, gained great puṇya by feeding a party of monks who had lost their way. His reward was that in his next incarnation he became a devatā, and after many many rebirths was incarnate as Mahāvīra. For less illustrious services one may in the next life become a merchant, or a ruler, or gain some other coveted position.

iii. Pāṇa
puṇya.In common with many other religions that have arisen in sultry lands, Jainism teaches that a special reward is attached to giving water to the thirsty (Pāṇa puṇya). There is no harm in giving unboiled water to a layman, but boiled water must always be given to an ascetic. The story of Neminātha, the twenty-second Tīrthaṅkara, shows how great the reward is. A king named Śaṅkara and his wife Jaśomatī once showed kindness to some thirsty monks by giving them water in which grapes had been soaked. In their next birth, as a reward, the king was born as Neminātha and his wife as the daughter of a famous king of Soraṭh; in this incarnation, though betrothed, they did not marry, but instead they both became ascetics on the day fixed for their wedding, and eventually obtained mokṣa.

iii. Vastra
puṇya.A great reward is also obtained by giving clothes to the poor (Vastra puṇya) and especially to monks, as the following legend teaches. Once upon a time a rich merchant's wife saw some monks shivering with cold, and made them blankets of cloth of gold out of some magnificent material she had byhen As a recompense she became in her next birth Marudevī, the mother of the first Tirthankara Ṛiṣabhadeva, and attained mokṣa in the same incarnation.

iv.
Layaṇa
and
v. Śayana
puṇya.Another legend illustrates the reward gained by any one, even a heretic, for building or lending a house to a monk (Layaṇa puṇya), or providing seats, beds or bedding (Śayana puṇya). A potter named Śakaḍāla, a follower of Gośāla, once saw Mahāvīra enter his village and approach his dwelling. At first he thought of not inviting Gośāla's great opponent into his house, but seeing Mahāvīra's divine qualities, he at length asked him in and gave him lodgings and a bed. (He could not offer food, as a'sādhu may not eat at the house where he stays.) In return Mahāvīra taught Śakaḍāla the law and converted him to the true faith, and he became a devoted Śrāvaka in this life and after death a god. Being reincarnated as a man, he became a'sādhu and so reached mokṣa.

vi. Mana
puṇya.By thinking well of every one and wishing them well we gain Mana puṇya, and vii. Śarīra
puṇya.by exerting ourselves to render them service or to save life we accumulate Kāya or Śarīra punya, as the following history shows. In a certain forest there was a small clearing, and once, when a terrible fire raged in the wood, all the animals rushed to this spot, and it became dangerously overcrowded. Even the mighty elephant had taken refuge there, and as he happened to raise his foot to change his position a hare ran under it. The elephant saw at once that if he put his foot down he would crush the hare, and in that crowded space there was not another place to which the hare could possibly move. So the elephant continued to hold his foot in the air for hours and hours, until at last, worn out, he fell to the ground and died. Immediately he was reincarnated as the son of a mighty king, and in his next birth became an ascetic and attained mokṣa.

viii.
Vaċana
puṇya.Merit is also won by speaking without hurting any one's feelings, and so as to influence others towards religion and morality (Vaċana puṇya). Kṛiṣṇa, for instance, the favourite Hindu deity, when King of Dvārakā, once heard Neminātha preach. He felt that he himself could not face the hardships of a monk's life, but he urged any of his subjects who could to receive initiation, and promised to look after their families. Some of the people thereupon became monks, and this brought Kṛiṣṇa^[103] so much Vaċana puṇya that he is bound eventually to become a Tīrthaṅkara, though he has a lot of karma to work off first.

ix. Na-
maskāra
puṇya.One may also obtain merit by reverent salutations (Namaskāra puṇya). The Jaina say that one first bows to religious men, then one gets to know them, next one decides to follow their example and by so doing one attains mokṣa. The Digambara and Śvetāmbara can obtain merit by bowing reverently to the images in their temples, but the Sthānakavāsī, having only gurus to bow to, show them double reverence and so have been accused of worshipping^[104] their gurus, which they indignantly deny, pointing out that they make them no offerings of flowers, fruit, &c. It would be quite impossible to write down even the names of the legends told with the object of illustrating the great rewards gained by doing reverence. In fact the first step to mokṣa is said to be climbed by bowing. We have seen that the god Kṛiṣṇa is to be a Tīrthaṅkara, and the Jaina say that he will take his first step from Pātāla (a lower region), where he now is, towards this high future by doing reverence.

The
forty-
two
ways of
enjoying
the fruit
of Puṇya.We have seen that there are nine chief ways of laying up merit: the Jaina believe that there are forty-two ways in which the reward of this merit can be reaped. If one is ways of very happy in having all that one needs to eat, drink and wear, one knows that one is enjoying Śātavedanīya. If one is born in a high family (Ūñċagotra); if one has had the joy of being born as a man (Manuṣya gati), and not as a beast, god, or hell being; and moreover if one is sure to be born in one's next birth as a man and not a beast (Manuṣya anupūrvī), one is experiencing three happy results of puṇya. The last of these results is often likened to the reins that pull an ox on to the right road, so strong is the force inherent in puṇya. If the merit acquired were very powerful, one might be born as a god and so enjoy Devatā gati, even becoming Kṛiṣṇa or Indra. To be even a minor god is a stage higher than being born as an ordinary man, and another of the fruits is Devatā anupūrvī, which keeps one on the path of becoming a god.

If we have all five senses in this life, it shows that we are enjoying Pañċendriyapaṇuṁ, and if we have a large and imposing body instead of a little one like an ant, that is owing to Audārikaśarīra. Sometimes puṇya has a magical effect, owing to which one may gain Vaikreyaśarīra, or a body like a god's, which can appear and disappear at will, can produce six or four hands, and become mountainous or minute. Certain monks by virtue of their knowledge and of their austerities gain the power of sending out a tiny body from themselves which can go to Mahāvideha and obtain answers to any doubts or spiritual difficulties from the Tīrthaṅkara there.^[105] This tiny body is called Āhārakaśarīra, and the power of creating it is regarded as one of the most valued fruits of puṇya. Certain other fruits of puṇya (Audārika aṅgopāṅga, Vaikreya aṅgopāṅga, and Āhāraka aṅgopāṅga) carry with them the assurance of having the full complement of limbs with these last-mentioned three bodies. It is only through having heat in one's body (Taijasaśarīra) that such physical functions as digestion, circulation, &c., can be carried on, and the possession of this heat is one of the fruits of puṇya. Tejoleśyā is inherent in such a body, and so is the power of producing magic fire. Every one possesses a body (Kārmaṇaśarīra) round which his various karma accumulate, and without which one could never experience any of the happy fruits of merit; the very possession of this body is owing to puṇya, for every one has amassed merit of some kind.

Several of the rewards result in bodily strength or beauty, such as Vajraṛiṣabhanārāċa saṅghayaṇa, which ensures one's possessing bones in one's body as hard as iron and as strong as a bull's; Samaċaturastra saṇṭhaṇa, that gives a well-proportioned, shapely and elegant body; and Śubha varṇa, Śubha gandha, Śubha rasa and Śubha sparśa, which endow one with a good complexion, pleasing bodily odour, good corpuscles in one's blood, and a skin that feels smooth as a peach to the touch. Again, the fruit of puṇya ensures one's being neither too fat nor too lean, but of exactly right weight (Agurulaghu nāmakarma), and also makes one so powerful (Parāghāta nāmakarma) that one is always victorious. Asthma or consumption are a clear sign that one has committed sin in a previous existence, for merit would have won Uċċhvdsa nāmakarma, which ensures one's having no impediment in one's breathing.

Jaina also believe that as a result of merit they may be born again as Jyotiṣī devatā, living in the sun for one life and giving off almost unbearable effulgence. This effulgence is a result of Ātapa nāmakarma. Others as a reward of merit go to the moon, where it is very cold, and so they give off a cold radiance which is due to Anuṣṇa nāmakarma. Even one's method of walking is affected by one's previous actions, and a stately gait (Śubhavihāyogati), like that of an elephant, a goose, or a bull, is a much coveted prize for merit.

Another fruit of puṇya (Nirmāṇa nāmakarma) leads to one's being born with all one's limbs supple and perfect. Through Trasa nāmakarma one is certain to be born as at least a two-sensed being and may be endowed with all the senses. Some lives are microscopic, but if one has acquired Bādara nāmakarma, one may rest assured that one will at least have sufficient size to be perceptible to the naked eye. In whatever class of life one is born, provided only one has gained Paryāpti nāmakarma, one will be perfect in that class.

Every ailment and every illness is traced back to a fault in a previous birth: thus a rickety child must have committed some sin which prevented its gaining Sthira nāmakarma, for that would have given it strong and well-set limbs, fine teeth and a well-knit frame.

It has been already mentioned that Jaina believe that every onion, potato, garlic, carrot, turnip and ground root is the home of innumerable jīva. If a man has acquired Pratyeka nāmakarma he cannot be forced to dwell in one of these underground roots, but in whatever body he may be born, he will have that body to himself. There cannot be more than one jīva inhabiting a human body at the same moment, nor more than one in a bird, beast, or insect; it is only underground roots that take in troops of tenement lodgers.

Certain other rewards ensure one's having a handsome body (Śubha nāmakarma), at least from the waist up, or being loved by all with whom one comes in contact (Subhaga nāmakarma), having a pleasant voice (Susvara nāmakarma), gaining respect from all whom one meets (Ādeya nāmakarma), or even gaining fame wherever one goes (Yaśokīrtti nāmakarma) .

Three different results of puṇya decide the term of life which one will spend as a god (Devatā āyuṣya), or a human being (Manuṣya āyuṣya), or a lower animal (Tiryañċ dyusya). The greatest and the final reward of punya is Tīrthaṅkara nāmakarma, which ensures one at last becoming a Tīrthaṅkara.

The Fourth Category: Pāpa.

The
eighteen
kinds
of Sin.In order to understand the religion of the Jaina we must try and grasp their idea of sin, for it is a very different conception from the Western, being in fact often ceremonial rather than moral.

i. Jīva
hiṁsā.To take any life seems to the Jaina the most heinous of all crimes and entails the most terrible punishment; yet the central thought of Jainism is not so much saving life as refraining from destroying it. 'Ahiṁsā parama dharma—Destroy no living creature! Injure no living creature! This is the highest religion!' declared a modern Jaina lecturer, and with almost Irish eloquence he goes on to say: 'I stand before you this noon to speak on a religion whose glory the dumb creatures, the cows, the goats, the sheep, the lambs, the hens, the pigeons, and all other living creatures, the beasts and the birds sing with their mute tongues; the only rehgion which has for thousands of years past advocated the cause of the silent-tongued animals: the only religion which has denounced slaughter of animals for sacrifice, food, hunting, or any purpose whatever,'^[106] ' The foundation principle of the Jaina religion', writes another,^[107] 'is to abstain from killing.' They even call their faith the rehgion of non-killing (Ahiṁsā dharma). To people believing thus, killing (Hiṁsā) is the greatest sin and abstaining from killing (Ahiṁsā) the most binding moral duty. There is a higher and a lower law for ascetics and for the laity. A monk must strive not to take any life (insect, vegetable, or animal) that has even one sense, but the laity are only forbidden to take any life possessed of two or more senses. The Jaina make a very interesting distinction between spiritual and actual murder (Bhāva hiṁsā and Dravya hiṁsā). One sins against Bhāva ahiṁsā by wishing for any one's death or desiring harm to befall them. Not only so, but if one does not continue and complete one's own education, or strive to improve one's own mind, or if one fails to exercise and discipline one's own soul, one commits Bhāva hiṁsā, for one kills by stultification what one might have been.^[108] Dravya ahiṁsā (or the forbidding of material killing) is absolutely binding on all Jaina of every sect, and to offend against this is the greatest of all sins. Breaches of the seventh commandment are considered as breaking this law,^[109] because more than one jīva are thereby held to be destroyed.

As a man kills a jīva, so will he be killed in hell, and lurid pictures are published to illustrate this tenet; but if any one kills a monk, that monk in the next world is given the privilege of killing his murderer without sinning against Ahiṁsā.

The Jaina say (with how much truth is doubtful) that their ancient rivals the Buddhists were once as careful as they to observe the rule against killing, but when Buddhism spread to different lands, it had to be adapted to the habits of people who declined to give up slaughter. A Jaina friend of the writer once acted most dramatically the way in which he declared Buddhists in Burma who desire to eat fish lift them carefully out of the water, and, having left them on the bank to die, say: 'Lo, here is a poor thing that has died! No sin will accrue to us if we eat it.' They also assert that the Buddhists in Tibet, calculating that sin accrues equally whether they kill the smallest or the greatest jīva, say: 'Therefore since we must acquire sin, let us kill an elephant,' and so get as much as possible for their money.

In connexion with Ahiṁsā the lecturer whom we have before quoted gives a derivation for the word Hindu which is perhaps more ingenious than ingenuous:

'Hindus were not those who originally lived on the banks of the river Indus. Hindus were those from whom hiṁsā was away. Let us not misunderstand words. Let us interpret them correctly. It is those men who are the slaves of taste who say that Hindus were those who lived on the banks of the Indus. We, Jaina, call Hindus those from whom him or hiṁsā is du or dūr, i. e. away!'^[110]

ii. Asatya
or Mṛiṣā-
vāda.Though Hiṁsā is the greatest of crimes, the Jaina also recognize seventeen other sins, and the next worse of these is untruthfulness, Asatya or Mṛiṣāvāda. They divide the way ordinary folk talk into four classes: they may tell the truth; or they may tell absolute lies; they may occasionally make use of white lies; or their conversation may be a mosaic of truth and lies. Now a Jaina is only allowed to speak in two ways: either he must tell the truth; or, if that be too difficult, he may avail himself of white lies; but he must neither lie, nor speak the half-truth half-lie that is ever the blackest of lies.

The sad story of King Vasu shows the power of absolute candour and the fall that follows any declension from it. Vasu was known as 'the Truth-teller', and his throne was established on veracity; indeed, so strong was the power engendered by his absolute fidelity to truth, that his throne was supported by it alone at a great height from the ground. Two men named Parvata and Nārada came to him to ask him to tell them the exact significance of the word Ajā, for one held it to mean 'grain' and the other 'goat'. The king's paṇḍit had told him that it meant 'grain', but instead of saying this, the king, endeavouring to please both parties, gave the word a double signification, saying it might mean either 'goat' or 'grain'. The result of this deviation from the strict truth was that the king's throne fell to the ground, but if you look in a dictionary you will see the word bears a double meaning to this day!

The rules regarding truthfulness and untruthfulness differ for monks and laity, as we shall see when we come to discuss the twelve vows.

iii. Adat-
tādānaDishonesty (Adattādāna) is another class of sin which is forbidden to all Jaina; besides actual theft, this sin includes keeping lost property or treasure trove, smuggling, cheating, taking bribes, and all treason and law breaking. It was explained to the writer that the reason why treason and law breaking were included under this category was that originally they led to much financial profit, and all illegitimate financial profit was stealing; nowadays they are not so advantageous, but they are still strictly prohibited. Under this head is also forbidden all sharp practice in business, together with the misappropriation of trust funds and the use of charitable funds for private gain.

iv. Abrah-
maċarya.Another sin that also bears a different connotation for the professed religious and the layman is unchastity (Abrahmaċarya); for whereas a layman is bound to maintain his own wife in all honour and happiness, it is sin for a'sādhu to allow so much as the hem of his garment to touch a woman. When we deal with the vows, we shall notice how much Eastern and Western monasticism have in common on this point.

v. Pari-
graha.The Jaina realized how many sins sprang from excessive love of one's own possessions. They taught that if a monk kept one garment or one vessel above the allowed number, or if he even became over attached to one that he lawfully possessed, he committed the sin of Parigraha, or covetousness. In the same way the layman was instructed that if he showed uncontrolled grief when one of his cattle died or his money disappeared, he too had given way to greed.

vi.
Krodha.As one studies more closely the Jaina idea of what sin consists in, one is struck with their profound knowledge of the human heart, a knowledge shared by all faiths which practise confession. Another thing that strikes one is the great stress they lay on anger (Krodha) as a source of sin. The merest globe-trotter notices how differently we Westerners look at anger, hardly accounting it a sin, while to an Oriental it seems a most heinous offence. We shall have to return to the subject of anger again and again in our analysis of Jaina thought; here it will suffice to notice that the Jaina hold that anger, though generally unrighteous (apraśasta), may also sometimes be righteous (praśasta). For instance, it is righteous for a guru to scold a lazy disciple^[111] or for a magistrate to speak severely, but it is unrighteous to get angry without a cause, or to add to the ill feeling between two persons.

vii.
Māna.The seventh of the eighteen kinds of sin is conceit or Māna, and of conceit there are eight forms:^[112] pride of caste, of family, of strength, of form, of wealth, of reputation, of learning, and last but not least, the pride of being a landed proprietor.

A great deal of confusion has arisen over the word viii. Māyā, which the Jaina use to denote the eighth sin. The Vedāntists of course use the word to mean illusion, and a smattering of their philosophy is now so common, that many people loosely read Vedāntism into all Indian philosophy and suppose māyā invariably to have this meaning. The Jaina, however, consider themselves to be nearer to the Sāṅkhya than the Vedanta school of philosophy, and their properly instructed^[113] teachers declare that the word generally means intrigue, cheating, attachment, ignorance, wealth, and only occasionally illusion. In the Jaina scriptures it usually connotes intrigue or cheating.

A commercial people are naturally prone to this sin, but the sanction it carries with it is very heavy—a man who cheats in this life may be born a woman in the next! Not only commercial but religious cheating may involve this penalty, as the case of Mallinātha, the nineteenth Tīrthaṅkara shows. In a previous life he and five friends delighted to perform their religious duties together, and all six fasted and meditated with the utmost regularity and circumspection. Gradually, however, Mallinātha began to long to outdo 122 THE NINE CATEGORIES OF them in austerity, and thus get ahead of them on the path to Hberation ; and so, yielding to temptation, he once added an extra fast to the days they had agreed to observe and kept it on the quiet without telhng his colleagues. His friends were deeply grieved when they discovered the deceitful way they had been outdone, but Mallinatha suffered also ; for though he had acquired so much merit that it automatically made him a Tirthaiikara, the spiritual maya he had indulged in turned him into a female one.^ ix.Lobha. The Jaina have many legends that show the evils of Lohha or avarice, the ninth kind of sin. Thus, a great king, Subhuma, lost his kingdom through greed and was drowned in the sea ; and it was through avarice again that a certain merchant prince lost all his millions and died without a pie. Indeed the proverb Lohha pdpanui'n mula, ' avarice is the root of sin ', is current not amongst Jaina only but among all Indians. ^ Kasaya. We now come to an analysis of these four sins (anger, conceit, intrigue and greed), together called i^a/ay^, which is of the first importance to our sympathetic understanding of the strength of Jainism. The value of Jaina philosophy lies not only in the fact that it, unhke Hinduism, has correlated ethical teaching with its metaphysical system, but also in the amazing knowledge of human nature which its ethics display. Very often Jaina divide and subdivide a subject in such a way as to throw no fresh light on it, but in the subdivisions of these four faults (which they rightly and profoundly regard as sister sins) they have seized on an essential truth, that the length of time a sin is indulged in affects the nature of the sin ; for sins grow worse through long keeping.^ ^ Digambara of course do not believe this, as they hold that no woman can ever be a Tlrthankara. ^ It is interesting to compare with this the Christian saying : 'The love of money is the root of all evil.' ^ Compare again : ' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath ' ; for the anger which is kept overnight has grown deadly by the morning. 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The sense of touch, too, must be carefully controlled [Sparsa dsrava), or the love of touching smooth things, for example, may become such a snare that the toucher may be lulled into unconsciousness through the pleasure of it. The four Karma may enter through the four emotions [Kasdya] ^ Kasaya. ^y^ggg exercise ties the soul to the cycle of rebirth, for if anger be indulged [Krodha dsrava), it burns the soul of him who gives way to it, as well as the soul of the person he may injure, and so both are harmed. Conceit and pride [Mdna dsrava) are a terrible foe to progress and open the door to all sorts of karma, besides they are the deadly enemy of courtesy, by which merit is obtained. Deceit and intrigue {Mdyd dsrava) lead to many kinds of falseness in word and deed, and thus much evil karma is accumulated ; and lastly avarice {Lohha dsrava) leads first to cheating and then to actual thieving, and is opposed to self-sacrifice and self- restraint. The Jaina say that these four evil emotions must be checked on the principle of cultivating the corresponding virtue. Thus the angry man must exercise forgiveness, the proud man humility, the deceitful frankness, and the avaricious contentment ; but how this is to be done is not explained. The five Again, through not taking the five great vows evil karma Avrata. ^^^ ^^^ -^^ -^^ ^^^ ways [Panda Avrata). If a man fails to go to a guru and, standing in front of him, to promise with folded hands that he will not kill, this simple omission to promise, without any commission, will lead to the acquisition of karma ; for the Jaina hold that without the stiffening of resolution that comes through taking the vow one is more liable to do wrong ; this liability leads to instability of mind, through which some karma enters. Of course more karma ^ See pp. 122 ff. FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS 141 would enter if one should go further and act contrary to the spirit of the vow. Similarly karma is acquired by faihng to take, or offending against, the spirit of the vow against lying, thieving, coveting and acting unchastely. Karma will also flow into any soul which has allowed The three either mind, speech, or body to become too entangled with °^^* a material object. If the mind is taken up with meditation on a Tirthankara or on a Siddha, the influence is good, and a favourable channel {Suhha dsrava) is opened up, through which, instead of karma, merit (punya) flows into the soul ; but if the mind is occupied with an evil thought (e. g. if such and such a merchant dies, I shall get his wealth), a bad channel is opened, and through this bad channel {Asubha dsrava) evil karma enters. In the same way there is a subha and asubha asrava of speech : by repeating the name of Siddha or the Pafica Paramesvara merit is acquired, but by evil or abusive speaking bad karma enters the soul. Finally, if one saves life, for example, by bodily exertion, it is subha asrava, whilst killing is, of course, asubha asrava. Besides these seventeen major channels or asrava, there The are twenty-five minor ways by which karma is acquired, twenty- all of them connected with action. If one is not careful minor about the movements of one's body, an injury may be Asrava. inflicted on some person or thing [Kdyiki dsrava) and evil karma acquired, and the same thing may happen through the careless use of weapons {Adhikaranikl), or through hatred [Pradvesiki], or intentionally (Paritdpanikl), or some prana {Prdrtdtipdtikl) may be injured. Again, by beginning to build a house or to till a field some insect life may be hurt [Aram- bhikt), or by gathering together great stores of grain, cattle, or wealth covetousness may arise [Pdrigrahikt) and give birth to karma. One might do some one an injury through deceit {Mdydpratyayiki), or acquire evil karma by acting contrary to the dictates of Mahavira and obeying the commands of some false faith [Mithyddarsanapratyayiki). Through omitting to take a vow to go to a certain place (e. g. Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/170 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/171 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/172 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/173 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/174 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/175 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/176 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/177 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/178 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/179 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/180 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/181 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/182 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/183 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/184 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/185 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/186 FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS 159 the idea, he removed the rings from each finger, and notic- ing how bare each looked when stripped of all adventitious decoration, he became so strongly convinced of the truth of this reflection, that the inflow of karma was arrested, he became at once omniscient, and as in a few more years all his acquired karma also disappeared, he eventually became a Siddha. The object of another reflection [Asaiica hhdvand) is to lead us to despise our bodies. To do this we must con- stantly remember that the body is compact of filth, and has such dirty habits that even our souls become soiled by contact with it. If we forget this reflection and become proud of our bodies, great misfortune will befall us, as the following story proves. A certain prince called Sanatku- marawas so handsome that his beauty was discussed in the assembly of the gods, two of whom were sent down in the guise of Brahmans to discover if he were really as beautiful as he was described. Unfortunately this visit of the gods gave rise to such pride in the heart of the prince, that karma flowed rapidly into his soul ; and, as a result of this karma, ill health (which, as we have seen, is always traceable to karma) beset the prince, until at last he had no less than six- teen diseases. However, he patiently endured the karma his conceit had given rise to, gradually worked it off, received initiation as a sadhu, and finally became a Siddha. The seventh reflection {Asrava hhdvand) reminds us that in the worldly life karma is constantly flowing in through the various channelswhichouractions, passions and senses, if un- controlled, leave open to it, and that all our sufferings come as a result of this karma. How much we may suffer, if we ourselves open the channels, we may learn from the story of King Pundarika. There were once two brothers, both of whom ruled as kings, but the elder brother, Pundarika, realized that this world was merely a junction of canals through which karma wascontinually flowing, and so decided to renouncehis throne and become an ascetic. He received initiation, but i6o THE NINE CATEGORIES OF gradually found that the life of an ascetic was too hard for him, and eventually persuaded his younger brother, Kunda- rika, to give up the kingdom in his favour. Becoming once more a king, Pundarika, instead of being happy, found it only too true that the world is a dreadful place for acquiring karma; and during his life he accumulated so much, that he is still, by undergoing countless rebirths, trying to expiate it. One must also reflect on and determine to adopt means (such as the taking of vows) which will impede the inflow of karma, and this reflection [Saj'nvara bhdvand) is illustrated by the history of the younger brother in the last story. Kundarika was delighted when his elder brother took his crown, for now, he thought, he would have a chance of arresting the inflow of karma ; so, meditating on this re- flection, he renounced the world, took the vows of an ascetic, and soon gained moksa, leaving his unfortunate elder brother still tied to the cycle of rebirth. Again, one must remember that by performing austerities one can expiate karma [Nirjard bhdvand). One must also reflect on the world {Loka bhdvand), remembering that it was created by no one, and that the elements it contains are in a sense permanent. By thinking of the various worlds under the form of a man, one will understand that at his feet is hell, his body is formed by men who will have to undergo fresh births, the head is Devaloka, and at the top of the head are the Siddha, those who will never again pass through rebirth. To arrest the inflow of karma one must also remember {Bodhiblja or Bodhidurlabha bhdvand) that everything is easy to acquire in this world save the three jewels : Right faith, Right knowledge and Right conduct, which can only be acquired by a human being. In the long cycle of rebirth it seldom happens that a jiva obtains human birth. Re- flecting thus, one must determine to use this opportunity to the fullest, and, taking the first step in the pathway of

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CHAPTER VIII

KARMA AND THE PATH TO LIBERATION

In our survey of the Nine Fundamental Categories of the Jaina faith we saw that the thought of karma—the energy accumulated by action—underlay them all, that five of them were concerned entirely with either the acquisition, prevention, impeding, or destruction of karma, and two others dealt with bondage to it or freedom from it. That seven out of the nine principles should be thus apportioned shows the enormous importance Jaina, in common with all other Indians, attach to karma. For them it is the key that solves all the riddles of this unintelligible world. Is a man born a cripple? It is owing to his karma. Are Indian immigrants badly treated in South Africa and made to live in special locations? It is owing to the evil karma they themselves acquired when they oppressed the outcasts, and compelled them to live apart from their fellow men.

If a man plead that he personally never thus ill-treated his brother, the doctrine of Transmigration, the undivorceable spouse of karma, is brought in, and he is assured that he must have done so in some previous existence. Nothing is more extraordinary in Indian thought than the way in which the unproved doctrine of karma has been universally accepted as an axiom.

The root of the word karma is, the Jaina tells us, the verb kri (to do), and they believe it to be the result of actions springing from four sources.

The four
sources
of karma.The first source of karma is Avirati, or attachment to the things of this life such as food, raiment, lodging, women, or jewels. The unlimited use and enjoyment of any of Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/202 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/203 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/204 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/205 178 KARMA AND THE ii. Darsa- navara- niya karma. iii. Veda- niya karma. ever attaining omniscience [Kevalajndndvaraniya). But Jfianavaraniya karma not only impedes us in gaining true knowledge and sound learning, but actually gives rise to false and hurtful knowledge and misuse of the intellectual powers. For instance, weapons are invented which eventu- ally kill people owing to Mali ajndna, or the misuse of the intelligence ; again the knowledge gained through reading the scriptures may be misunderstood or misapplied [Sruta ajndna)^ and this might lead to the practice of bhakti (devotion to a personal god) or to obscenity ; or karma may hinder and falsify all spiritual insight {Vibhanga jndna) as well as physical sight. All this obstruction to knowledge and gaining of false knowledge can be traced back to a former life in which the jiva has been jealous of another's knowledge, or has failed to help another to gain knowledge, or has actually tried to prevent any one from gaining know- ledge by employing them in ways which left no time for study, thus acquiring this evil karma. The second of the eight great divisions of karma is Darsayidvaramya, the karma which prevents our beholding the true faith. As a door-keeper may prevent our getting into the presence of a chief, or a peon hinder our gaining access to an English official/ so Darsanavaraniya karma may prevent our ever seeing the true faith, however much we may long to follow it. There are nine divisions of Darsanavaraniya karma which we have already studied. It affects those jiva which in a previous birth have acquired evil karma by showing want of reverence tc sacred books or to saints, or by hindering those who would like to believe in Jainism, or by imputing faults to Tir- thankara, or by manifesting ill feeling to other religions. Vedaniya karma, the third of the great divisions, causes us to experience either the sweetness of happiness or tht ^ A frequent cause of misunderstanding in India is the way in whid a peon often manages to prevent Indians from approaching Britisl officials, until he receives a sufficient doticeiir. PATH TO LIBERATION 179 bitterness of misery.^ The Jaina think of this Hfe as resembHng two sides of a sword, the one smeared with honey and the other with opium, and it is Vedanlya karma which determines which side we taste. Sdtavedaniya is the karma that leads to happiness, and Asdtavedaniya that which produces the reverse. One ensures happiness, or Satavedanlya karma, by showing reverence to our superiors and serving them, by extending forgiveness and mercy to any who have injured us, and by straight- forward deahngs with all mankind. But one must re- member that good no less than evil karma has to be ' worked off ' before one can go to moksa, and that though it is well to do good, it is better to do nothing at all after one has reached a certain stage in development, for karma lurks in all action. It may perhaps be owing to the in- fluence of this belief, so inimical to anything like public spirit, that the Jaina have shown such apathy during the famines that from time to time have devastated India. They have a saying that one needs the ship of good deeds or punya to go from one harbour to another, but after reaching the harbour the ship is no longer needed ; meditation alone will transport us to our native village or moksa. Just as wine, say the Jaina, prevents a man speaking or iv. Moha- thinking clearly, so does Mohanlya, the fourth and most P'^^ dreaded karma, bemuse all the faculties. It results, gene- rally speaking, from worldly attachments and indulgence of the passions, but each of the twenty-eight divisions of Mohanlya karma springs from some special cause. We have already (fortunately for the reader !) discussed most of these divisions, and only a few remain. The first of these, M ithydtvamohaniya kar?na, induces a man to believe good things to be unwholesome, or falsehoods to be true, just as a patient who is delirious often longs for ^ Dr. Bhandarkar follows Govindananda in believing Vedanlya karma to mean, ' the belief that there is something which one has to know '. Jaina, however, seem to give it in this connexion the meaning rather of experience. Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts, p. 97. N 2 harmful things and declines health-giving food; another type of this karma, Miśramohanīya karma, forces us to vacillate, resting our faith sometimes on what is true and sometimes on what is false ; while, owing to Samyaktva- mohaniya karma, though we know which faith is true, we cannot attain to full devotion and consecration to it. The Jaina liken the influence of these three classes of Mohaniya karma to the results arising from taking the grain Kodaro. If this grain be eaten without any preparation, it causes the most intense giddiness such as quite to bewilder the eater. Such is the effect of Mithyatva ; if the husk of the grain be removed, the result is less stupefying and resembles that of Misra ; whereas, if the grain be thoroughly cleansed, the occasional slight uneasiness it may cause is comparable to Samyaktva. Another karma, Darsanamohanlya karyna, arises from taking life in the name of religion (as Hindus and Mohammedans do when they slay goats at their religious festivals), or from misappropriating funds or falsifying true religion. Again, taking part in state intrigues, acting im- morally, administering evil medicines, spreading false super- stitions and giving full play to all the passions give rise to Cdritramohaniya karma. Only when Mohaniya karma, the greatest of them all, is extinguished, can the soul reach moksa.

v. Āyu
karma The fifth great division, Ayii karma, determines the length of time which a jiva must spend in the form with which his karma has endowed him, for not only the prison but also the term of imprisonment varies according to the weight of karma acquired. There are four divisions of this karma, one of which {Deva dyu karma^) decides how long a jIva who has become a god ^ shall remain one. The Jaina beheve in four classes of gods : those who inhabit the

'^ Or Devayuhkanna.

2 It should be noticed that though the Jaina use the same names for the gods as the Hindus employ, the words have often a different connotation ; e.g. whereas the Hindus use the word Indra to denote the rain-god, the Jaina beheve in not one but sixty-four Indras, who have nothing to do with rain, but who are the rulers of sixty-four different kingdoms. planets {yyotisi), evil ghost-gods {Vyantara), gods who travel in the celestial car {Vaimdnika), and lastly Bhavajiapati, the lords of the lower regions, who inhabit the space above hell. Each of these gods has a different ayu or term to serve.

Another branch of Ayu karma determines how long a jiva can wear a human form [Manusya ayu karma'^1). There are two classes of human beings on this earth, those who live in the land where work is done {Karmabhumi^2) and who exercise themselves in warfare [asi], in commerce, religion, or writing {masi), or in agriculture [kasi] ; and those who live in the land where no such work is done {Akarmahhilmi) , but where all needs are supplied by the ten kinds of desire-fulfiUing trees ; both classes of men only hold their position for the length of time their Manu§ya ayu karma determines. Again Ayu karma decides how long a jiva can be forced to inhabit the form of an insect, a bird, or a lower animal [Tiryanc ayu karma ^3).

The fourth division of Ayu karma determines the period for which a jiva must dwell in one of the seven hells {Naraka ayu karma ^4).

The comforting thing about all four divisions of Ayu karma is that it can never be accumulated to last beyond one re-incarnation, and that it can be acquired only once in one's life, generally at the period when about a third of life remains. It is accumulated in the following ways : a man wins Deva ayu karma, which will keep him in the position of a god for a certain time, by straightforward dealing, by avoiding anger, pride and greed, and by practising celibacy. In the same way, by being always gentle and honourable and checking all tendency to anger, pride and greed, a jiva gains the privilege of being a man for a period that varies according to his past virtue

^ Or Manusydyuhkarma.

^ Dr. Jacobi practically limits the activities of Karmabhiimi to practising religious duties. This would ignore asi and kasi entirely. Acdrdhga Siitra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 195.

^ Or Tiryagdyuhkarma.

• Or N arakdyuhkarma. (Manu5ya ayu karma), and also enters a state in which he

understands which gurus and gods are true and which books rehable, and in obedience to them he protects all life and follows the dictates of the Jaina religion. But a man who gives way to craftiness and intrigue will be sentenced to pass some of his next life as a bird or beast (Tiryahc ayu karma); another by indulging in any of the following sins: gambling, drinking intoxicants, eating flesh, unchastity, thieving, or hunting, is determining the time he will pass in hell (Naraka ayu karma),

vi. Nama
karma. In studying Ayu karma we have seen that a jiva may be sentenced to spend a certain time as a man, a god, an insect, or a hell-being. Each of these four states or con- ditions is called gati, and it is according to our past deeds that we are born in the Manu§ya gati, Deva gati, Tiryafic gati, or Naraka gati, the karma that decides which of these four shall be our particular gati, i.e. in which prison we shall dwell, being called Ndma karma.^ There are one hundred and three divisions of Nama karma, many of which w^e have already discussed when we were studying the categories of Papa and Puiiya.

vii. Gotra
karma. An Indian's whole life, his occupation, the locality in which he may live, his marriage, his religious observances and even his food and fellow diners are determined by the caste into which he is born ; so that it is small wonder if a Jaina attach the greatest importance to the accumula- tion of Gotra karma, which, as he believes, determines his caste in his next and subsequent lives. There are two main divisions of this karma : it decides whether the jiva shall be born in a high- or in a low-caste family. Pride is one of the chief factors in determining a man's future caste : if he indulge in pride about his high caste, his

^ Dr. Bhandarkar quotes Govindananda's saying : ' Namika, i. e. the belief that I am a person bearing such and such a name ; Gotrika, i. e. the knowledge that I now belong to the family of the pupils of the worshipful Arhat.' Loc. cit., p. 97. None of the Jaina that the writer has consulted accept these translations as correct. form, his learning, his family, his fame, his strength, his success in commerce, or his austerities, he is laying up the inauspicious Gotra karma which will surely cause him to be born in a low-caste and despised family in the next life ; if on the other hand he sternly curbs his conceit and that constant criticizing and censuring of others which is the surest proof of pride, and also in every possible way takes care of animals, then birth into a high caste will be his reward.

viii. Antarāya
karma. All of us have been bewildered by the ineffectiveness of viii. some people ; they seem to have everything in their favour ^ntaraya and yet they muddle away every opportunity that life offers them. The Jaina find the answer to this puzzle in their belief in Antardya karma, the karma that always hinders. If we are wealthy and so generous that we long to revel in the keen joy of giving, and yet never do give, we know that in a past life we accumulated the karma that prevents giving [Ddndntardya karma). If we realize the profit that is sure to follow a certain course of action, and yet we never act on this realization, we must have accumulated Ldbhdn- tardya karma. If in spite of our wealth we never really enjoy our possessions or our luxuries, either continuously or even for an instant, the cause is either Bhogdntardya or U pahhogdntardya karma. The last hindering karma {Vlrydntardya karma) prevents our using our will or our bodily strength as we should hke to do. The convenience of this belief is obvious. Life in India is for Indians, as it is for Europeans, a constant and unending fight against slackness, in which Europeans have the advantage of periodic visits to a cool climate to brace their moral as well as their physical fibre, and have also a tonic belief in the dignity of work and the gospel of exercise. Jaina have none of these advantages, but recline on the ener- vating doctrine of Antaraya karma, which provides those of them who are lazy with an excuse for every sort of

inertia.

The Arrangement of the Eight Karma.

The Jaina have a special reason for the way they arrange the eight karma : they say that the first thing necessary is knowledge {jndna) ; without this we cannot behold the true faith {darsana) ; if we possess both knowledge and faith, we are indifferent to pain or pleasure [vedaniya) ; mohanlya follows, because through pleasure or fear of pain we may become entangled in worldly attachments ; that is the chief cause which determines the length of each imprisonment {dyu) ; when this has been determined, there still remains to be decided the state in which we shall be imprisoned {ndma) ; on that again depends the caste and family [gotra) ; and a man's caste and family are after all either his greatest help or his greatest hindrance {antardya).

Ghdtin and Aghdtin Karma.

The eight karma are also classified into the Ghdtin karma, which can only be destroyed with great labour, and which include Jfianavaraijlya, Darsanavaraniya, Mohaniya and Antaraya karma: and the Aghdtin karma, namely Vedaniya, Ayu, Nama and Gotra karma, which, important as their results are, can yet be more easily destroyed. The Jaina say that if the Ghatin are once burnt up in the burning glow of austerities (tapa), the Aghatin can be snapped as easily as a piece of burnt string.^1

Three Tenses of Karma.

The Jaina also divide karma according to the period when it was acquired, is being experienced, or will be experi- enced. The karma which we accumulated in past lives they call Sattd ; that which we are even now in this present life sowing, and of which we shall reap the harvest in a future

^ Here again will be noticed a difference from the interpretation of Govindananda (who thinks four karma ' are of use to enable one to know the truth; therefore they are Aghatins, i.e. not injurious, favourable'); and from Dr. Bhandarkar, who considers the Ghatin Karman to mean ' the disabling Karmans '. Loc. cit., pp. 97 n. and 93. life, is named Bandha ; and the karma whose fruits, good or evil, are now ripening and being experienced is Udaya.^1 The Jaina illustrate these three divisions of karma by the three stages the water in a well passes through. When the water is in the well, they liken it to Satta karma ; when it is in the leathern bucket that draws it up from the depths of the well, to Bandha karma, and as it flows along to the plants, to Udaya karma.

Nikacita


karma. The whole teaching of Jainism on karma would lead to fatalism of the most mischievous kind, were it not for the ^"^*^jj^ belief that there are two great types of karma. One type, karma. Nikacita karma, we have stored up for ourselves and we are bound to experience; but a ray of hope comes through the existence of Sithila karma, or that destiny which we may by extraordinary exertions evade. Only the Kevali know to which class a mortal's karma has been assigned, so that every man is left free to hope that he may by present exertion escape some of the suffering he has earned in his past history. It was probably seeing the tragic effect of absolute fatalism on Gosala which led Mahavira to incor- porate this tenet into the body of his doctrine.

The Fourteen Steps to Liberation from Karma.

So long as the soul is bound by karma, it can never attain deliverance, but the Jaina believe that there is a ladder of fourteen steps [Cauda Gunasthdnaka^) by which a jiva may mount to mok§a.

i. Mi-
thytva
gunas-
thnaka. The Jaina believe that the soul while on the first step i. Mi- [Mithydtva gunasthdnaka) is completely under the influence ^^^^^^ of karma, and knows nothing of the truth. There are two thanaka. divisions of this step : when a soul is on the lower [Vyakta- mithydtva gunasthdnaka), other people can see that it is mistaking false religion for the true faith ; when one has advanced to the slightly higher step [Avyaktamithydtva

^ It is interesting to compare these three divisions with the Vedanta Sancita, Kriyavidna and Prdrabdha karma.

"^ Or Gunasthdna, gunasthdnaka), though one may continue in this mistake, one is not doing it so unhesitatingly as to be obvious to others. Just as taking an intoxicating drug prevents one's distinguishing white from yellow, so a soul on this step makes mistakes. A Jaina sloka says:

{smaller|' As a man blind from birth is not able to say what is ugly and what is beautiful, a man on the Mithyatva gunasthanaka cannot determine what is real and what is false.'}}

ii. Sasva-

aka. The soul, whirled round and round in the cycle of rebirth, sadana loses some of its crudeness and ignorance, and attains to tha'naka. ^^^ State (called Granthibheda) when it begins to distinguish a little between what is false and what is true ; unfor- tunately, it next moves into the state (named Upasama sarikita) when, though it knows there is a distinction, it forgets it, and so is not able to put it into practice ; but . when some faint remembrance comes back, it has arrived at the second step {Sdsvdsadana ^ gunasthdnaka) of the stairs to mok§a. The Jaina say that Upasama sahkita resembles fire hidden under ashes, for though a man's bad qualities may be hidden and under control for a long time, they are bound to blaze out at last,

iii. M
gunas-
a. A soul mounts to the third step {Misra giutasthd- gunas- naka) is in an uncertain condition, one moment knowing thanaka. ^j^^ truth and the next doubting it. It is like the mixture formed by stirring together curds and sugar to make the sweetmeat called srikhapda, which is half sour and half sweet. No one will die in this mixed condition, but will either slip back to the second step or proceed onward to the fourth.

iv. Avira-

. . . The man at the fourth stage, Aviratisamyagdristi gunasthanaka, has either through the influence of his past good karma, or by the teaching of his guru, obtained true faith. A famous sloka runs :

'Liking for principles preached by Jina is called true faith, it is derived either from nature or from knowledge given by the guru.'

^ Or Sdsvddana. The soul is still unable to take those vows which help in the fight against karma (which we shall discuss in the next chapter) and so the step is called Avirati. He can now, if he likes, control anger, pride and greed and three branches of Mohanlya karma (Mithyatva, Misra, and Sam- yaktva), and it is a very dangerous thing not to destroy all of them, for they may lead to a man's falling back to the second step. Whilst on this fourth step, the jiva gains five good things: the power of curbing anger {Sama); the realization that the world is evil, and that since it is a place in which one has to reap the fruits of one's own karma, one need have little affection for it {Samavega i) ; he also realizes that his wife and children do not belong to him [Nirveda) ; and that he must try and relieve any one who is in trouble {Anukampd) ; and lastly he gains complete faith in all the victorious Jina [Asthd). We have seen that the distinguish- ing mark of this stage is that a man does not yet take the vows ; he may wish to do so, but though he has destroyed excessive anger, pride and greed, he has not yet entirely escaped from their influence.

v. Desa

. The fifth step, Desavirati^ gunasthdnaka, or the step of merit, as it is often called, is specially interesting, for up till now faith has been the chief point that has exercised the thoughts of the climber, but now he realizes the great importance of conduct, and so can take the twelve vows which, as we shall see, deal largely with questions of be- haviour. The step has three parts. First [Jaghanya desavirati), a man promises not to drink intoxicants or to eat flesh, and he constantly repeats the MagadhI salutation to the Five Great Ones (Paiica Paramesvara) : ' A bow to Arihanta, a bow to Siddha, a bow to Acarya, a bow to Upadhyaya, a bow to all the Sadhus of this world.' Then, though still on the fifth step, he may advance a little higher on it {Madhyamades avirati) and, keeping all the twelve vows, take special care only to make money in righteous ways.

^ Or Samvega.

^ Otherwise Samyaidsamyata. Every day he should be very careful to keep the six rules for daily hfe, which are described in a well-known sloka :

'One must worship God, serve the guru, study the scriptures, control the senses, perform austerities and give alms.'

Thirdly, while still on this step, he may advance to Utkrista desavirati, eating only once a day, maintaining absolute chastity, resigning the society even of his own wife, eating nothing that possesses even one life, and finally forming the determination to become a sadhu. This is the highest step that a layman can reach as such, for if it be successfully surmounted, he will become a sadhu.

At this stage, too, moderate anger, deceit, pride and greed are controlled and sometimes destroyed.

vi. Pra-
matta
gunas-
thanaka. We now come to the sixth step on the ladder, Pramatta gunasthdnaka, which can only be ascended by the professed ascetic. Even slight passions are now controlled or de- stroyed, and only certain negligences {Pramdda) remain.

'These five Pramada : Pride, Enjoyment of the senses, Kasaya, Sleep and Gossip, torment the soul in this world '

runs a Magadhi sloka, and the Jaina believe that if a soul is to mount the next step, he must never indulge any of these for more than forty-eight minutes at a time ; if he does, he will not mount, but on the contrary will descend to the lowest step of all.

vii. Apra-
matta
gunas-
thanaka. At the seventh step, Apramatta gunasthdnaka, anger is either absolutely quiescent or actually destroyed, and only in a shght degree do pride, deceit and greed remain. The soul's power of meditation increases, for the bad qualities which lead to sleep are absent, and lastly one is freed from all neghgence.

viii.Niya-
tibadara
(or Apur-
vaka-
rana) gu-
nastha-
naka. Among the Digambara some say that women can only mount as high as the fifth stage ; others believe they can reach the eighth step, which is called Niyatibddara gunasthdnaka. It is also called the Apurvakarana, because the man who has his foot on this stair experiences such joy as he has never known before in all his life. As anger disappeared on the seventh step, so does pride now, either temporarily or for ever. A man at this stage increases his powers of meditation by Yoga, and the fetters of karma are fast becoming unloosed ; in fact so elevated is this step, and so few attain to it, that it is also called ' the Unique '.

It is interesting to notice that the Jaina think it easier ix.Aniya- to get rid of anger than of pride, and that deceit does not^'Jj^^f^^ disappear till the man has reached the ninth step [Aniyati- tha'naka. hddara gunasthdnaka), whilst greed persists longer than •any of the other Kasaya ; any one who has watched the ■ characters of Indians develop and improve would acknow- ledge how extraordinarily true this psychological succession is. Not only does the man attain freedom from deceit at this stage, but he becomes practically sexless. One great difficulty still persists, for he is haunted by the memories of what he did and saw before he became an ascetic.

The description of the tenth step, Suksmasampardya x. Suks- gunasthdnaka, emphasizes the enormous difference between '""^sam- the Jaina and the Christian notions of asceticism, for this gunas- stage is only reached by the advanced ascetic, who there- thanaka. upon loses all sense of humour, all pleasure in beauty of sound or form, and all perception of pain, fear, grief, • disgust and smells. One contrasts with this a certain Cowley father's saying about ' the sheer fun it was to be a Christian ' ; and many devout Christians tell us that, having made the great renunciation, they have found almost unexpectedly that the surrender of worldly ambition and the wire-pulling it entails has endowed them with an entirely new appreciation of the beauty of nature, the treasures of art and the joy of living, besides giving them a deeper power of suffering with others. In short, Christian asceticism is a development of personality, whilst Jaina asceticism amounts to self -stultification.

Some slight degree of greed still remains to the Jaina ascetic who has reached this stage. It must be remembered that the Jaina sadhu generally comes from the commercial igo KARMA AND THE xi. Upa- santa- moha gunas- thanaka. xii. Ksl- namoha gunas- thanaka. xiii.Sayo- gikevalr gunas- thanaka.

class, and often from a money-lender's family. This helps us to understand how difficult some ascetics find it to get rid of greed, and, whilst professing to give up everything, contrive by hook or crook to retain their fortune, some- times, as we have noted, even keeping it in paper money hidden on their persons, to the great disgust of their fellow Jaina. Those who manage absolutely to destroy every trace of greed will pass straight to the twelfth stage, whilst others have to pause at the eleventh.

When a man has attained to the eleventh stage, Upa- sdntamoha gunasthdnaka, he has reached a really critical point, where everything depends on how he deals with the sin of greed. If he destroys it, and it becomes quite extinct, he is safe ; but if it only remains quiescent, he is in a perilous state, for, like a flood, it may at any moment burst its dam, and the force of its current may carry the soul far down the slope he has been climbing, depositing him on either the sixth or seventh step, or even on the lowest. On the other hand, if he deal successfully with greed, he becomes an AnuttaravasI Deva and knows that he will become a Siddha after he has undergone one more rebirth as a man.

If a man be on the twelfth step, Kslnamoha gunasthdnaka^ he has won freedom for ever not only from greed but from all the ghatin karma,^ and though the aghatin karma^ still persist, they have little power to bind the soul : in fact, so limited is their power, that at death a soul passes at once through the two remaining stages and enters moksa without delay. The Digambara believe that at this stage the first two parts of pure contemplation (Sukladhyana) are developed.

If a man who reaches the stage of Sayogikevali giinas- thdyiaka preaches, and forms a community or tirtha, he becomes a Tirthaiikara. He first (according to the Digam-

^ i.e. those difficult to destroy, or according to another interpretation those which destroy omniscience : Jnanavaranlya, Darsanavaraniya, Mohanlya and Antaraya. Cp. p. 184. ^ i.e. those easy tjo destroy, or those which do not destroy omni- science : Vedanlya, Ayu, Nama and Gotra. bara) obtains 'eternal wisdom, illimitable insight, everlasting happiness and unbounded prowess '. When this absolute knowledge is acquired, Indra, Kubera ^ and other heavenly- beings, including the celestial engineer, Vaisramana, raise the Samavasarana (or heavenly pavilion) where the twelve conferences meet to hear eternal wisdom from the Kevali. After prayers have been offered, the Kevali goes about preaching truth, until, when the day of deliverance approaches, he takes to the third part of pure contem- plation (Sukladhyana). Here the soul reaches every part of the universe and is yet contained within the body, though its only connexion with it now is residence. The last part of contemplation follows when the fourteenth step is ascended, and the body disappears like burnt camphor. This is Nirvana.2

Before proceeding, however, to discuss the fourteenth step, we may quote the famous sloka that describes the pomp of a Tirthankara :

'The tree of Asoka, the shower of celestial flowers, the singing of heavenly songs, the waving of fly whisks, the lion-shaped throne, the shining of the halo, the beating of celestial kettle-drums, the umbrella, all these eight things attend the Tirthankara.'

As we have seen, it is the Tirthankara, the man at this thirteenth stage, that the people worship ; for once he passes to the next step, he loses all interest in people, besides parting with his own body. The Siddha alone know exactly where every one is on the heavenward road, but they have lost all interest in the question.

xiv. Ayo-
gikevali
gunas
thanaka. The moment a man reaches the fourteenth stage, Ayogi- kevali thdnaka, all his karma is purged away, and he proceeds at once to moksa as a Siddha (for no one can remain alive on this step). In moksa there is of course no absorption into the infinite, but the freed soul dwells for ever above the land called Siddhasila, from whence it returns no more, and this is moksa.

^ Or Kuvera.

2 A. B. Latthe, M.A., Aft hitroduction to Jainism, p. 42. There 'innumerable delivered souls exist and are to be there for ages that never were begun and which never close '. A sloka describes the qualities of the Siddha thus:

'Omniscience, boundless vision, illimitable righteousness, infinite strength, perfect bliss, indestructibility, existence without form, a body that is neither light nor heavy, such are the characteristics of the Siddha.'

As a soul passes from stage to stage, it gains the three jewels,^ and the possession of these ensures the attainment of moksa.

The writer was recently discussing these fourteen steps with some Jaina friends, and it was most interesting to notice the way they realized that Christians not only believed in an upward, heavenly path, but also in the con- stant companionship of a Guide who held their hands and steadied their feet over the difficult places. The Jaina of course, denying as they do a Creator, are deprived of the belief in a heavenly Father, who watching over us ' neither slumbers nor sleeps '. The vital difference on this point of the two faiths is well illustrated by the contrast between Christian evening hymns such as :

' Abide with me : fast falls the eventide ; The darkness deepens ; Lord, with me abide : When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.'

— and the following Magadhi sloka which many devout Jaina repeat after their evening reading from the sacred books:

'The soul is the maker and the non-maker, and itself makes happi- ness and misery, is its own friend and its own foe, decides its own condition good or evil, is its own river Veyaranl.^ My soul is my KudasamalT.^ The soul is the cow from which all desires can be milked, the soul is my heavenly garden.'

^ Right knowledge, right faith and right conduct. See p. 245.

^ Or Vaitarani : the river in which hell-beings are tormented and drowned by Paramadhami.

^ A tree under which souls are tormented by Paramadhami.

CHAPTER IX

THE LIFE STORY OF A JAINA

Babyhood.The importance of being born a man is early emphasized in Jainism; for the moment a child is born, if it be a boy, a brass tray is beaten by the proud father or other relatives in order to announce the happy event, and also, they say, to get the child used to noise from the first and to ensure that it shall never be frightened.

Whether the child be a girl or a boy, the exact moment of its birth is noted, that the astrologer may later on be able to draw its horoscope, on which its future marriage will depend.

The baby is then bathed in water and its little mouth is washed with wool dipped in a mixture of sugar-cane water and melted butter.

If the child be the first-born son of the household, the parents send presents of such things as sugar, sweets and fruits to their friends, but of course no such extravagance is indulged in if it be a girl.

Fifth day.When the little mite is five days old, its friends bind white threads round its neck, its hands and its feet for luck, and send presents of cooked sweetmeats to their friends.

Sixth day.The Jaina believe that a boy's whole future is decided the night that he is six days old, and on that night Mother Chaṭṭhī is worshipped. A little stool in the sleeping-room is covered with a piece of white cloth, and on it are placed a white sheet of paper and a white pen, a lamp of melted butter is lighted, and then some relative takes the baby on her lap, covers its head, and worships both the stool and its contents before the family retire to rest. When all is quiet they believe that Chaṭṭhī or Vidartha will come and write secretly on the paper a description of the sort of fortune that will meet the Ninth day.child during life, and the length of time it will live, but no one is ever able to see, much less decipher, the mystic writing.

On the ninth (or with some sects the eleventh) day after the child's birth the mother is bathed. After the bathing she stands so as to face the sun and shakes from her finger a drop of kaṅku (turmeric).

Naming ceremony.When the baby is twelve days old, it is named with much ceremony. In a silk sārī (the shawl-like overdress of Indian women) are placed some grain, the leaf of a pipaḷa tree, a copper coin and a sopārī nut, and then four boys (or, if the child be a girl, four girls) are called, and each seizes a corner of the sārī and begins to rock it. The baby meanwhile is lying in the arms of the father's sister, and as the children rock the sārī and sing

'Oḷi jhoḷi pīpaḷa pāna
Phaie pāḍyuṁ [Rāmjī] nāma,'

the aunt at the right moment declares the child's name, and of course also gives it a present; for while all the world over the profession of aunt is an expensive one, it is nowhere more so than in India.

Fifteenth day.Fifteen days after the child's birth, the mother goes to the river to fill the water-pots for the house. She takes with her seven different kinds of grain and a cocoa-nut. Arrived at the river, she lights a tiny earthenware saucer containing ghī, splits open the cocoa-nut, and, after arranging the grain in seven rows, she fills a water-pot from the river, and then, picking up one of the seven rows of grain, she puts it in her lap, and as she walks home carrying the filled water-vessel, she scatters the grain.

Haircutting.The next thing of great importance is the cutting of the child's hair. This is done when he or she has attained either the third, fifth, seventh, or ninth month of its first year. (The particular month is not of great importance, provided it be an uneven number.) The barber is called, and after the operation is over, he is given a special present, and a lucky mark is made on the child's forehead.

Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/223 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/224 THE LIFE STORY OF A JAINA 197 sung, and dates and sugar are divided amongst those who are present. The carpenter who is to erect the booth brings with him a special piece of wood, and on it is placed a green stick and some fruit, all of which are carefully placed in the hole dug for one of the poles that support the booth. A Brahman next mixes together some curds, milk and sopari nut, repeating as he does so appropriate mantras, and the bridegroom takes this mixture in his right hand and pours it over the pole of the booth. For a week from the date of the erection of the booth all near relatives of the bride and bridegroom are feasted. One of the most popular of the Hindu gods is Ganesa, the Ganesa remover of all hindrances, and at wedding times he is worship, worshipped, not only by the idol-worshipping, but even by the non-idolatrous, sects among the Jaina. Accordingly the day after the erection of the booth even SthanakavasI Jaina bring an idol of Ganesa to the mandapa. A heap of grains, sopari, rice and wheat is arranged on a stool covered with a white cloth, and Ganesa is placed on the pile. Then around the stool they place twenty-five ladus in heaps of five, and twenty-five dates, and when this is done, two virgins carrying cooked rice in their hands come and wor- ship the idol and mark it with auspicious marks. The relatives have also been summoned to come and worship Ganesa, and they obey, bringing both wheat and rupees with them to offer to the idol. (After the wedding the paternal aunts of both bride and bridegroom will have the right to these rupees.) The bride and bridegroom are seated on stools nearthe god, and now a ' lucky ' woman takes four pieces of wood, dips them in oil, and touches the bride and bride- groom's heads with them. The paternal aunt plays an important role in the wedding, as she did in the other cere- monies, and she now comes forward and ties an iron ring on the bridegroom's cotali ^ and gives him two rupees, and then an uncle of each of the couple lifts them down from ^ The lock of hair that most Hindus leave uncut. 198 THE lifp: story of a jaina their stool and gives them a few rupees. Sometimes seven lucky women come to the pair whilst they are still standing on the stool, and seven things are poured into their laps. Ukaradi Occasionally on the night after the booth was erected girls go outside the great gate of the house and, after singing auspicious songs, dig a little hole in which they place small copper coins and grains, carefully covering them afterwards with earth, and then re-enter the house singing. Caka. About this time also the girls of the family go to a potter's yard and mark his wheel with red powder and throw rice on it. The potter gives them some pots, which they bring back to the booth and place near the idol of Ganesa. Wedding When the actual wedding day arrives, the family goddess ^^' is worshipped, and fourteen girls are fed. The potter is again visited, and in exchange for a present of some three pounds of wheat, some dates and a cocoa-nut he provides four water- pots. Either the bride or the bridegroom is now seated in the booth, and 'lucky' women come and either bathe them or else content themselves with at least bathing a toe. The all-important aunt now comes forward and ties a silver ring where the iron one had been in the boy's hair, and the maternal uncle gives some money to the lad and lifts him down from the stool. The bridegroom is then dressed in his most magnifi- cent clothes, and, carrying a cocoa-nut in his hand, goes on horseback in procession towards the bride's house, but is met half-way by a procession from thence. The actual marriage ceremony takes place after sunset, and is the occasion for some mild horse-play. The bride's sister, for instance, goes out to meet the bridegroom's pro- cession, bearing a water-pot and a cocoa-nut. She makes the auspicious mark on the forehead of the bridegroom and then pinches his nose, and the groom's party put some rupees in the water-pot. Some one then lifts the bridegroom down from his horse, and the lad raises the

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CHAPTER X

THE JAINA LAYMAN AND HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE

The Twelve Lay Vows.

The Jaina, though they do not know of any dynamic power such as would give a man strength to keep his promises, nevertheless firmly believe in the helpfulness of taking vows.^[114] Through these, they say, a man is aided towards keeping the third jewel, that of Right Conduct, and by failing to take them he acquires karma from which they might have saved him.

We have seen that it is only after he has made some progress in the upward path that a man wishes to take these vows,^[115] though after a certain time he is able to keep the spirit of the vows without needing to renew the vows themselves. Not only must the candidate have reached the fifth step, but he must also have attained to firm faith in a true Tīrthaṅkara, true guru, and true religion.

Pañċa
Atiċāra.Further, he cannot take any vow unless he has first renounced five faults (Pañċa Atiċāra) and so has no doubts (Śaṅkā); no desire to belong to another faith (Kāṅkhā); no questioning about the reality of the fruits of karma (Vitigiċċhā); undertakes not to praise hypocrites (Parapākhaṇḍa paraśamsā); and not to associate with them (Parapākhaṇḍa santhana).

The five
Anu-
vrata.If all these conditions be fulfilled, the man may take the first vow (Prāṇātipāta viramaṇa vrata), promising never intentionally to destroy a jīva that has more than one sense. i. Prāṇā-
tipāta
vira-
maṇa
vrata.This vow would not prevent a king leading an army Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/234 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/235 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/236 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/237 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/238 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/239 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/240 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/241 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/242 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/243 2i6 THE JAINA LAYMAN AND times they kneel [pancdrtga) in front of idol or guru, and three times also they perform dvartana, i. e. make a circle before their faces from the right ear round to the left ear, holding a mouth-cloth or other piece of material in front of their mouths, and repeat the Tikkhutto, which may be translated : ' Making avartana from the right ear to the left three times, I salute and bow, and I worship and adore you ; you are a guru [or a god], you are auspicious, you do good, you are full of knowledge, so I serve you.' If no image and no guru be there, the Jaina kneel towards the north-east (in which direction they believe the country of Mahavideha, where certain Tirthankara live, to be situated) and then ask permission of the first of these, the Slmandhara,^ before repeating the Tikkhutto. During the forty-eight minutes they not only meditate but also read the scriptures, and at the end of the forty-eight minutes they repeat the particular patha for closing Samayika which refers to five special faults which may be committed during meditation, namely ; failing to control thoughts ; mind ; actions ; failing to observe the fixed time ; and not repeat- ing the patha correctly. ^ ,_ The tenth vow, Desdvakdsika vrata, which resembles two kasika that we have already discussed, is taken in the following vrata. words : ' I take the tenth vow called Desavakasika. I will not go beyond the limit fixed by me in any of the four directions in mind or body, and will not open any of the five asrava [channels] for sin. In the limit that I have fixed I will not enjoy any of the things which I have vowed not to enjoy. I will not transgress nor cause others to transgress it by mind, speech, or body ; and I will not enjoy such things in mind, speech, or body for one day and night.' In taking this vow a man promises for one particular day to still further contract the limits he has undertaken not to transgress, and he may bind himself during that day ^ Simandhara was the earliest Tirthankara from the land of Maha- videha, just as Risabhadeva was the first in Bharata ( India). HIS RELIGIOUS LIFE 217 never to go outside the Apasaro or the village, and only to have one meal, or to drink nothing but water. At the same time he promises that he will spend longer in medita- tion. He must guard against infringing the vow by extend- ing the number of things used ; borrowing some one else's things ; sending a servant to fetch things or asking some one he meets in the road to do so ; or by making signs and so asking even without words ; or by throwing stones to attract people's attention and then getting them to fetch it. We have seen how Mahavira realized the importance of xi. connecting the laity closely with the ascetics, and how this °^.^ ^ close connexion saved Jainism when Buddhism was swept out of India. The eleventh vow, Posadha vrata, is one of the links that bind the two sections of the Jaina com- munity together, for the taking of it compels a layman to spend some of his time as a monk. He promises that for twenty-four hours he will touch neither food, water, fruit, betel-nut, ornaments, scents, nor any sort of weapon, and will commit no sort of sin, but observe celibacy. He further promises that by day he will only wear three cloths (a cloth over his legs, one over his body, and a mouth-cloth), and that at night he will use two cloths only (one spread above him and one below him). Devout laymen usually perform Posadha four times a month, but those who hope eventually to become sadhus observe it six times a month at least. The Digambara keep this vow more strictly than any other Jaina, for they begin to observe it the night before the twenty-four hours fixed (i. e. they keep it for two nights and the intervening day), and during all that time they never even touch water. Neither do they go to an Apasaro, but choosing some lonely place they read the scriptures and meditate there. The other Jaina go to their Apasaro, read the scriptures,

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CHAPTER XI

THE JAINA ASCETIC

The layman has now reached the summit of his ambition, and is prepared to take those five celebrated vows which Mahāvīrahimself laid down as the only entrance through which a man can pass to the ascetic state.

As one reads the biographies of the great Jaina saints, or even studies the lengthy route we have just been following, one can see that, though the Jaina did not insist on their candidates taking a long training like that of the Vedic schools, they nevertheless did not intend their monks to be the ignorant, ill-prepared and undisciplined men they often are at present. The Jaina openly wish that they could insist on a thorough preparation for their sadhus such as is customary for the Christian ministry.

The Life Story of an Ascetic.

Initia-
tion.The life story of an ascetic may be said to begin with his initiation or Dīkṣā, and the writer is indebted to a Śvetāmbara monk for the following account of a Jaina call and ordination.

The man in question had heard a famous sādhu preach on the transitoriness of life and happiness and the superiority of the religious over the lay life, and had thereupon followed the preacher for a year as his disciple, and at the completion of twelve months received initiation.

A great procession was formed and he was led through the town to a banyan tree (an aśoka tree would also have served). There a pujārī (officiating priest) had arranged a small three-tiered platform with an image of one of the Tīrthaṅkara at the top. A Jaina layman began the Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/254 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/255 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/256 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/257 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/258 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/259 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/260 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/261 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/262 THE JAINA ASCETIC 235 or Aydnabhanda nikhevaiid), that it has no insect life on it. And at night, when putting away all that remains over from the food he has begged, he must deposit it and any other refuse so carefully, that no insect life is injured {Pratisthdpand samiti or Parithdpanikd samai)} The following sloka sums up these five clauses : ' A man should respect the vow of Ahirhsa by exercising self-control, examining things taken, always maintaining the Five Samiti, and by inspecting things before he eats or drinks, and before he receives them.' The Jaina monk further takes a vow against untruthful- ii. Asat- ness {Asatya tydga) which is defined in the following words : ^^ y^S^- ' Undertaking to speak what is pleasant, wholesome and true is called the vow of truthfulness. Truth is untruth if it is not pleasant and wholesome.' The five bhavana, or strengthening clauses, to this vow supply a remarkable psychological analysis of the causes which lead to untruthfulness. The first {Anuhlmabhdsl) condemns speech without deliberation ; then, as wrath often leads to falsehood, monks must never speak when angry [Koha/'/i parijdndi) ; nor for a similar reason when moved by avarice {Lohain parijdndi) ; nor by fear [Bhayaih parijdHdi) ; finally, they promise never to tell a falsehood for fun, or from the desire to return a smart repartee [Hdsai'n parijdHdi) . A Sanskrit sloka which sums up these clauses may be translated as follows : ' One should respect the vow of truthfulness by always avoiding jesting, greed, cowardice and anger, and by thinking before speaking.' The third vow, that of non-stealing [Asteya vrata), is iii.Asteya defined as follows : vrata. ' The vow of non-stealing consists in not taking what is not given ; wealth is the outward life of man, and if that is taken away the man is undone.' ^ Some Jaina substitute for this the duty of searching mind, thought and intention (Manaparijandi). The five bhāvanā are as follows : First, a monk must ask permission of the owner before he occupy any one's house (Miugāha jāti). Then a junior monk must never use any food without showing what he has received in alms to his guru, and receiving his permission to eat it (Aṇuṇa vihapāṇa bhoyaṇe). Again, a monk must not be content to ask permission only once from the owner to use a house, but he must frequently ask if he may occupy it, and also ask how much of it he may use, and for how long a time (Uggahaṁ vauggdhitaṁsa). He must not use any furniture, such as beds or seats, that may be in the house, without the owner's permission (Uggahaṁ vauggahiṁsa ahhīkhaṇaṁ). Lastly, if a sadhu arrives after another sadhu has already obtained permission to use the house, the second arrival must ask the first sadhu to go again and get permission for him also ; and if the second sadhu arrives ill, the first must willingly give him all the room he needs (Aṇuvīi mitoggaha jāti) .

The following śloka describes these clauses :

'One should ask for a place of residence after reflection, and renew the request every day: "I only need so much of it." Thus speaking, one should renew his petition. With people of one's own rank one should ask in the same way. One should gain permission before eating or drinking. In these ways the vow of non-stealing is respected.'

iv. Brahmac͏̇arya vrata

The monks, as their fourth promise, take the vow of chastity [Brahmacc͏̇rya], and the Sthānakava-͏&#x{{{2}}};si-͏&#x{{{2}}}; monks in Kaṭhia-͏&#x{{{2}}};wa-͏&#x{{{2}}};d every night and morning repeat the following words:

'The vow of chastity is eighteen-fold. One should have no dealings with gods, human beings or animals of the opposite sex, should not encourage them, or cause others to do so, by speech, thought or deed.'

This vow also has its five strengthening or protective clauses. To prevent any approach to transgressions of the main vow, monks should not talk about a woman (Abhikhanaṁ itthi-͏&#x{{{2}}};naṁ kahaṁ kaha itame) ; or look at the form of a woman (Maṇohara-͏&#x{{{2}}};i indiya-͏&#x{{{2}}};i a-͏&#x{{{2}}};loetae) ; or even recall the former amusement and pleasure women afforded them when they hved in the world {Itthwavi puvdraydiih puva- kiliydi sumaritae) ; they must not, for similar reasons, eat or drink ^ to excess, or partake of too highly spiced dishes {Ndtimapdim hhoyana bhoi) ; nor must they live in the same building as a woman, a female animal, or a eunuch [Itthl pasu pandaga savisatdi say and smdini sevitde).

All these rules mutatis niutayidis apply to nuns.

The sloka that sums up the whole vow and its clauses runs thus :

' The vow of chastity is maintained by not sitting on seats previously occupied by women, female animals or eunuchs, and by not living in their vicinity, not participating in exciting conversation about women, not remembering former delights, not looking at a woman's form, not decorating one's own person, not eating or drinking to excess, or par- taking of too highly seasoned food.'

This Jaina vow seems limited to negative chastity, which shudderingly avoids its fellow creatures, lest they should prove occasions of stumbling, and it appears ignorant of the sunht purity that so delights in its walk with God on the open road of life, that it cannot be bored with nastiness.

v. Apari-
graha
vrata. The last great vow {Aparigraha vratd) consists in renouncing all love for anything or any person. The definition of it may be translated as follows :

' Having no possessions consists in relinquishing greed for any- thing ; if we think that a particular thing is our own, the mind is agitated by greed.'

In the Jaina scriptures the vow is held to exclude all likes and dislikes in regard to sounds, colours, or smells, as well as people. In short, the way to maintain this vow is to be indifferent to anything our senses can tell us.

This fifth vow of the monk foreshadows what the con- dition of the Siddha will be, when all his powers are entirely shrivelled up.

^ It will be remembered that no Jaina, lay or ascetic, may ever drink wine. The following śloka tells how the vow is kept:

'Renouncing liking for pleasant touch, taste, smell, form,^[116] or word,^[117] and for all the objects of the five senses, renouncing hatred for un-pleasant objects, these are the ways to maintain the vow of Aparigraha.'

Rātribho jana tyāga

Certain Svetambara add a sixth vow, that of never dining after it is dark (Rātribho jana tyāga), lest they should in- advertently take life, but most Jaina consider this included under the other vows that protect insect life.

Twenty-seven Qualities of the Ideal Monk.

We have seen that the Jaina have a conception of the ideal layman ; and in the same way they also show us the picture of a perfect monk, summed up in a Mágadhī śloka :

' The true ascetic should possess twenty-seven qualities, for he must keep the five vows, never eat at night, protect all living things,^[118] control his five senses, renounce greed, practise forgiveness, possess high ideals, and inspect everything he uses to make sure that no insect life is injured. He must also be self-denying and carefully keep the three gupti, he must endure hardships in the twenty-two ways, and bear suffering till death.'

CHAPTER XII

THE END OF THE ROAD

Pañċa Parameśvara.

We have traced the journey of a jīva along the upward path that leads through the destruction of karma, by way of the fourteen upward steps and the keeping of the twelve vows and the eleven Pratimā, to monkhood. It only remains to us to note the different ranks a man may hold as an ascetic before he finally attains mokṣa.

Sādhu.First, he is just an ordinary ascetic or'sādhu; if he be a Digambara, he will wear no clothes and live in the forest, lost to the world and immersed in meditation, eating only once a day and tearing out his hair as it grows. Nowadays one hears of only two or three Digambara ascetics. If he be a Śvetāmbara^[119] or a Sthānakavāsī,^[120] he will move from Apāsaro to Apāsaro clad in white clothes.

Upā-
dhyāya. The next step to which he can rise is that of Upādhāya or instructor. An exceptionally clever monk may be chosen from amongst the others as teacher, when he is expected to study the scriptures and teach them to his fellow monks. Amongst the Tapagaċċha no monk can be chosen as an Upādhāyaya till he has been an ascetic for at least a year, but this does not seem to be always the rule with other sects. The scriptures he will most probably teach are the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra, the Upāsaka Daśāṅga Sūtra, and the Bhagavatī Sūtra. The last, the Bhagavatī Sūtra, holds almost the same position amongst many Jaina that Hindus give to the Bhagavadgītā or Christians to the Gospels.

These scriptures most Jaina laymen are familiar with, but the instructor should, according to some Jaina, have also studied the scriptures the laymen have not read, namely, the eleven Aṅga and the twelve Upāṅga or the Ċaraṇaśitarī^[121] and the Karaṇaśitarī^[122], or, according to others, the eleven Aṅga and the fourteen Pūrva. All teaching and studying is a kind of austerity; if a man studies intentionally to gain merit, he will get merit (puṇya); if, however, he studies and teaches to gain and impart knowledge with no thought of acquiring merit, he will destroy certain karma (nirjarā).

Āċārya.A still higher rank is attained when a monk becomes an Āċārya or Superior. In many sects the Āċārya is chosen simply by seniority (this is nearly always the case in Kāṭhiāwāḍ), but in others the Āċārya is selected for ability, or powers of leadership, as is generally done in Mālwā.

The choosing of a new Superior or Āċārya is made the occasion of great rejoicing. Jaina laymen come to the Apāsaro, take the twelve vows or renew them, and sing songs and make the greatest noise imaginable. In order to permit of animals sharing in their rejoicing, they pay butchers varying sums to cease killing for those days. An Āċārya is a man of very high dignity: he never travels alone, but is always accompanied by at least two'sādhus; and as his fame grows, the number of his disciples increases. When the writer, for instance, had the pleasure in Rājkot of meeting Śivalālajī Mahārāja (who is considered the most learned Sthānakavāsī āċārya of the present time), he had travelled thither with twenty-one attendant'sādhus.

The power of excommunication for religious offences lies with the Āċārya^[123] acting with the Jaina community or saṅgha, and it is to the Āċārya that, whenever possible, the monks of his saṅgha should make confession. As a rule the Acarya wears the same dress, eats the same food, and follows the same rule as his fellow monks ; sometimes, how- ever, his little sitting-board is raised slightly higher from the ground than those of the other monks.

It must not be thought that the ordinary sadhu must gain the rank of Instructor and Superior to go to moksa, a simple ascetic can do that ; but it is generally easier for the higher ranks of ascetics to attain deliverance than for the lower, because their office helps them to develop the neces- sary qualities. An Acarya should, of course, observe with special attention all the usual ascetic discipline.

A Magadhi sloka describes the ideal Acarya as possessing thirty-six qualities : he controls the five senses ; he is chaste in the nine ways ; he keeps the three gupti ; he is free from the four kasaya ; he keeps the five great vows ; he observes the five rules of conduct ; and he maintains the five samiti : such are the thirty-six qualities of an Acarya.

The goal of every monk is to become at last an Arihanta Tirthan- or Tirthankara, the Being who has attained perfection of ^rSanta. knowledge, perfection of speech, perfection of worship, and absolute security, for no danger or disease can ever come where he is. Having become a Tirthankara, the jiva is at length freed from the dread that overshadows every Jaina, the fear in this life of suffering or sorrow, which has to be borne with no Friend at hand to strengthen and comfort, and the dreary expectation after death of the endless cycle of rebirth.

A meaning often given to the word Tirthankara is that of one who finds a ford {tlrtha) through this world [saiJisdra) to moksa, or one who attains a landing on the other side. But many Jaina say it denotes one who forms four com- munities {tlrtha) of monks and nuns and male and female lay-followers. When a new Tirthankara arises, the fol- lowers of the preceding one follow him, as the followers of Farsvanatha followed Mahavira.

We have noticed ^ the eight glories which surround a

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CHAPTER XIII

JAINA WORSHIP AND RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS

Temple
worship.The Jaina are most courteous in permitting outsiders to witness the ritual of their temples, only asking that the spectators should remove their shoes. In the Digambara temples the idols are nude, and the eyes are cast down as a sign that the saint represented is lost to all worldly thought. The Śvetāmbara, like the Digambara, have images of the Tīrthaṅkara sitting in meditation in the Kāusagga position with legs crossed and hands in the lap, but unlike the Digambara their idols are given loin-cloths, have staring glass eyes looking straight in front of them, and are adorned with necklaces, girdles and bracelets of gold. The writer has elsewhere fully described the worship in the temples:^[124] here it may suffice to give only a short summary.

Digam-
bara
worship.The officiant in a Digambara temple must himself be a Jaina (though this is not the rule among the Śvetāmbara), and he will never eat any of the offering made to the idol. In the course of the morning worship he washes the idol (Jaḷa pūjā) and dries it, being most careful that no drop of water falls to the ground, marks it with three auspicious marks of yellow powder (Ċandana pūjā), and offers rice (Akṣata pūjā) and dried (not fresh) fruit (Naivedya pūjā).

In the evening the worship consists of Āratī pūjā, when a five-fold lamp is solemnly waved from left to right for a few minutes in front of the idol.

Śvetām-
bara
worship.The strange part of Śvetāmbara worship is that, if no Jaina be present, it can be performed by a non-Jaina, and the writer has at various times seen paid officiants who were Brāhmans, gardeners, or farmers by caste performing the ritual.

If, however, a devout Jaina be present, he will, after bathing and changing his clothes to the two pieces of cloth he keeps for the purpose in the little dressing-room outside the temple, often bid as much as five annas for the privilege of performing the Jaḷa pūjā, when he will carefully wash the idol with water, then with milk, and then again with water; the same worshipper might also perform Aṅgaluñċhanā pūjā and dry the idol with five or ten separate cloths, which are kept in the temple, and whose number seems to vary according to the wealth of the shrine. A worshipper may do the Ċandana pūjā and mark the idol with fourteen auspicious marks, but only the paid officiant is allowed to perform the Aṅga pūjā, since this involves the handling of the valuable jewellery belonging to the idol. If the worshipper for whose benefit it is performed has paid a large sum, such as fifty rupees, the best crown, necklace, ear-rings, bracelets, armlets and girdle, all wrought in pure gold, will be brought out and put on the idol; if he only offers, say, twenty-five rupees, the idol will only wear its second-best silver-gilt ornaments. Then flowers and garlands (Puṣpa pūjā)^[125] are offered, and this completes that part of the ritual for which special dress must be worn, and the performance of which is restricted to men.

The remaining acts of worship can be done by women, or by men in their ordinary dress, since the inner shrine need not be entered. They consist of Dhūpa pūjā, the waving of a stick of incense before the shrine; Dīpa pūjā, the waving of a lamp; Akṣata pūjā, the offering of rice; Naivedya pūjā, the giving of sweetmeats; and Phaḷa pūjā, the offering of fruit. It is interesting to notice the way each different worshipper arranges the rice in the Akṣata pūjā; it is usually placed thus:

The Svastika sign (a) is intended to represent the Gati or state in which a jīva may be born as either a denizen of hell, or of heaven, a man, or a beast. The three little heaps (b) symbolize the Three Jewels of right knowledge, right faith, and right conduct, which enable a man to reach Mokṣa, represented by the sign (c).

When fruit is offered it is noticeable that the Śvetāmbara have no scruple about including fresh fruit in their gift, a thing which the Digambara—the stricter sect—will not allow, considering that by so doing they take life. The evening temple worship of the Śvetāmbara, as of the Digambara, practically consists in Āratī pūjā—waving a lamp before the shrine.

Meritorious as it is to perform the worship in the temples in one's own town, far more merit is gained by doing so at places of pilgrimage, particularly at special seasons of the year. On great festival days at Ābu, Girnār, and above all Śatruñjaya the temple court is thronged with would-be worshippers, all out-bidding each other for the privilege of performing the various ritual acts, whilst the temple custodians, acting as auctioneers, employ the familiar wiles of the auction room to run up the price. The auctioning is carried on under the phraseology of bidding for ghī (melted butter), and the man who offers the most seers of ghī obtains the coveted privilege. No ghī of course changes hands, the seers being only a conventional phrase for a fixed number of annas.

The present writer saw a man at Śatruñjaya perform the cheapest service—the Sanātana pūjā—for which privilege he had paid only two annas, though at Abu he would have paid at least five-and-a-quarter. After bathing and donning the two cloths, he marked the idol in fourteen places and filled up time by playing on a harmonium. He then took in one hand a tray containing roses, almonds, rice, saffron and sugar, and in the other a jug containing water and milk, and round the jug and round his wrist he tied a red thread. After performing Dīpa pūjā and Akṣata pūjā, he did what is called Ċamarī pūjā, i. e. gently Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/281 254 JAIN A WORSHIP AND priests drag out a silver throne, and, placing it under a canopy erected in the court of the main temple, set the image of a Tirthankara thereon. The pilgrim does the eight-fold worship [Jalapiijd, Candanapujd, Puspapujd, Dhupapujd, Dlpa piijd, Aksata pujd, Naivedya pujd, and Phala pujd) eleven times over, and in the intervals hymns are sung to the accompaniment of a harmonium ; and when the writer witnessed it, boys dressed in shepherd-plaid trousers and bright pink-frilled jackets danced to the jingling accompani- ment of bells round their ankles. The pilgrim was in this case a little girl, who seemed to be utterly exhausted by fasting, thirst and fatigue. Private The Sthanakavasi Jaina, being non-idolatrous and having worship. j^Q temple which they can attend, naturally pay more attention to meditation and private worship than the other sects, and if the reader would really learn to understand the heart of Jainism, it will repay him to study their private devotions with some minuteness, since after all a man's meditations are generally a true reflection of his creed. The Digambara Jaina are said to use a good deal of Sanskrit in their devotions ; the Svetambara employ both Sanskrit and Magadhi ; but the Sthanakavasi, who claim to hold closest of all the sects to primitive practice, confine themselves as far as possible to Magadhi. Sanskrit would seem therefore to have come into use with idol worship under Hindu influence, and where reverence is refused to images, the sacred language of the Brahmans is also neglected. Every devout Sthanakavasi ought to rise two hours before sunrise in winter and summer, and, taking in his hands his rosary, consisting of io8 beads, recite the Navakdra mantra, saluting Arihanta, Siddha, Acarya, Upa- dhyaya and Sadhu, and also Knowledge, Faith, Character and Austerity, and, this done, should if possible repair to the monastery. Every Apasaro, as also every temple, has a little room where the Jaina keep their clothes for worship, which usually consist of five articles : two long pieces of RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS 255 cloth, one of which they wear round the loins and the other over the shoulders, a little strip to cover the mouth, a piece of cloth to sit on, and also a brush. The devout layman, wearing only the two cloths, sits down on what is in fact his prayer carpet, and, after asking permission from his guru, begs forgiveness of any living thing he may have injured on his way from his house to the monastery. He is then in a position to perform Sdmdyika, the most Sama- essential portion of which, Karemi bhante, consists in the y^^' repetition in Magadhi of a vow which might be thus translated : ' I vow that I will not sin in regard to Dravya for the space of forty- eight minutes anywhere in the whole world. In right earnest I vow not to sin in any of the six ways. O adorable one, I take this vow, and I will keep it in this manner : I promise to keep it in thought, word and deed myself, and not to cause others to break it in thought, word, or deed. Again, O adorable one, I thus free myself from all sinful actions ; 1 condemn them in the presence of my spirit and preceptor, and I vow to keep my spirit free from such actions.' The worshipper then praises the twenty-four Tirthankara Cauvi- of the present age in Magadhi verse {Cauvlsanttho'^),^^^^ ' which might be rendered : ' I sing the praise of the twenty-four Tirthankara and other Kevali, who have shed the light of religion on this world, who formed com- munities and so became Tirthankara. I salute Risabhadeva, Ajitana- tha [here follows the list of the twenty-four]. I praise these and all others who have shaken off the dust of karma and have destroyed old age and death. May these twenty-four Tirthankara show mercy to me. May these Tirthankara, famed in this world, whose praises I have sung, whom I have worshipped in mind, and who are excellent in this world, grant me that religion in which meditation forms the chief part and which protects from all diseases. Ye are brighter than the moon, more brilliant than the sun, more awe-inspiring than the ocean. Grant to me, O Siddha, to reach Siddha-hood.' Next follows Vandaim, i. e. salutation and prayer for Vandana. forgiveness to the guru, if he be present, or in his absence to the north-east corner of the building, that being the direc-

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CHAPTER XIV

JAINA MYTHOLOGY

The Jaina declare that they do not worship their gods, but that they regard them as instruments for working out the fruits of karma. They say also that their gods differ from the members of the Hindu pantheon in being graded: indeed they might almost be considered as having caste amongst themselves. In spite of being gods, they are inferior to men, since before they can attain mokṣa they must be born again as human beings; yet, if they have accumulated good karma in previous births, they may now be enjoying greater bliss than men.

Gods in
Hell.The lowest gods are in Hell, where their work is to torment jīva; these deities are divided into fifteen classes according to their different functions. Amongst them are the Amba, whose special task it is to destroy the nerves of their victims (as a mango is pinched and crushed in a man's hand to soften it, so do they wreck the nerves of the jīva they torture); the Ambarasa, who separate bones and flesh; the Śāma, who beat and belabour men; the Sabala, who tear the flesh; the Rudra, engaged in striking men with spears; the Mahārudra, occupied in chopping flesh into mince-meat; the Kāla, who are roasting the flesh of their victims; the Mahākāla, who are tearing it with pincers; the Asipata, engaged in cutting their victims with swords; the Dhanu, who are shooting them with arrows; the Kumbha, who are indulging in the pastime, so often employed in Indian native states, of torturing with chillies; the Vālu, who steep men in hot sand; the Vetaraṇī, who like devilish dhobīs dash their victims against stones in streams of boiling water; the Kharasvara, who force men to sit on thorny trees; and last in the fearsome list, the Mahāghoṣa, who shut men up in black holes.

Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/297 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/298 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/299 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/300 JAINA MYTHOLOGY 273 and when every man's height was six miles, and the number of his ribs two hundred and fifty-six. The children born in this happy period were always twins, a boy and a girl, and ten Kalpavriksa (desire-fulfilling trees) supphed all their need ; for one tree gave them sweet fruits, another bore leaves that formed pots and pans, the leaves of a third murmured sweet music, a fourth gave bright light even at night, a fifth shed radiance like little lamps, the flowers of a sixth were exquisite in form and scent, the seventh bore food which was perfect both to sight and taste, the leaves of the eighth served as jewellery, the ninth was like a many-storied palace to live in, and the bark of the tenth provided beautiful clothes. (In many of the Jaina temples representations of the happy twins are carved, standing beneath these desire-fulfilling trees.) The parents of the children died as soon as the twins were forty-nine days old, but that did not so much matter, since the children on the fourth day after their birth had been able to eat as much food as was equal to a grain of corn in size, and they never increased the size of this meal, which they only ate every fourth day. The children never com- mitted the sin of killing, for during their whole lives they never saw a cooking-vessel or touched cooked food, and on their deaths they passed straight to Devaloka, without ever having heard of religion. In the next period, Susama, which, as its name indicates, was only half as happy as the first, the twins born into the world were only four miles high, had only one hundred and twenty-eight ribs, and only lived for two palya of time, but the ten desire-fulfilling trees still continued their kind offices. The parents of the children lived longer now (the Jaina, according to this, would seem not to consider the long life of their parents essential to their own happiness !) and did not die till the children were sixty-four days old ; and mean- while human appetite had so far increased that twins ate a meal equal to a jujube fruit three days after their birth, T 374 JAINA MYTHOLOGY and continued to do so every third day throughout their lives. In Siisama Dusama the happiness has become mixed with sorrow ; the twins are now only two miles in height, have only sixty-four ribs, and live only for one palya, but on their death they still go to Devaloka. It was during this period that Risabhadeva, the first Tirthahkara, was born. He taught the twins seventy-two useful arts, such as cooking, sewing, &c. ; for he knew that the desire-fulfilling trees would disappear, and that human beings would then have only themselves to depend on. Risabhadeva is also credited with having introduced politics and established a kingdom, but his daughter BrahmT, the Jaina patron of learning, is even more interesting than her father. This learned lady invented eighteen different alphabets (oh, misdirected energy !) including Turkish, Nagari, all the Dravidian dialects, Canarese, Persian, and the character used in Orissa. From these, the Jaina say, were derived GujaratI and Marathl. It is strange that a people who believe the patron of letters to have been a woman should so long have refused to educate their own daughters : surely in this particular they might safely follow the example of so illustrious a being as their first Tirthankara. In the period of Dusama Susama, which lasted for one crore of crores of sagaropama less forty- two thousand years, the height of man was five hundred span, the number of his ribs thirty-two, and his age one crore of purva. The women born in this age ate twenty-eight morsels of food, the men thirty-two, and they both dined once during the day. During this time the Jaina religion was fully developed, and there were born the remaining twenty-three Tirthankara, eleven CakravartI, nine Baladeva, nine Vasudeva, and nine Prativasudeva. People born during this epoch did not all pass to Devaloka, but might be reborn in any of the four Gati (hell, heaven, man, or beast), or might become Siddha. Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/303 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/304 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/305 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/306 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/307 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/308 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/309 whose workmanship dims the memory of the stairway of Christ Church and the roof of the Divinity School in Oxford, and gives the spectator a new standard of beauty. The many pillars that support the dome are all so perfectly carved, that the element of ‘ control ’ is never lost, and the many curved struts between the pillars recall the days when the Jaina wrought their dreams in wood. No de- scription can give the reader any idea of the dainty elabora- tion of the carving in white marble: indeed the learner needs to pass many times from the blinding glare of a dusty Indian day into the cool whiteness of these shrines and surrender himself to the beauty and stillness of the place, ere he can hope to unravel half their wealth of legends in stone.

We know that the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth cen- turies saw the zenith of Jaina prosperity. Not only were kings reckoned amongst the most ardent disciples of this faith, but great wealth poured into the community; and as this acquisition of power and wealth coincided with a time of real religious fervour, it is not surprising that there followed a marvellous epoch of temple-building, in spite of occasional outbursts of fierce persecution. Mount Ābu, bearing on its bosom shrines that are marvels of fretted loveliness, the frowning rock of Girnār crowned with its diadem of temples, and Śatruñjaya in its surpassing holiness, half fortress and half temple-city, bear witness to the fervour of those days, when, for example, even the masons after completing the work for which they were paid on Mount Ābu voluntarily erected another temple as a free-will offering, which is called to this day the Temple of the Artificers.

It has already been pointed out that this the golden age of Jaina temple-building in India is also the period of the great Gothic cathedrals of Lincoln, Salisbury and Wells in England, and of Amiens, Rheims and Chartres in France. Both styles show a complete control of the principle of vaulting and a marvellous inventiveness in the wealth of detail with which the interiors are decorated. Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/311 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/312 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/313 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/314 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/315 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/316 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/317 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/318 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/319 292 THE EMPTY HEART OF JAINISM king, and each left his high estate for a hfe of poverty and insult. Each wandered homeless through sunny lands, followed by a band of twelve disciples, proclaiming the beauty of poverty of spirit, of meekness, of righteous- ness, of mercy, of purity, of peace, and of patient suffering. Alike they illustrated their teaching from the every-day life of the countryside, showing how much greater a thing it was * to be ' than ' to do ', and how perilous * to have ' ; but each teacher gave his followers a different motive to rule their lives, for the command of the one was to love and of the other to escape. No The Jaina do not beheve in one supreme God. Innumer- supreme able men of like passions with themselves have, by steadily eradicating all that belongs to personality, passed to take their places amongst the Siddha in a still land of endless in- activity ; but none of these are first and none second : all are equal ; and none take any interest in the human toilers who are climbing the steep ascent leading to the goal which they themselves have reached. The loss suffered by those who have relinquished their belief in a supreme God it is impossible adequately to gauge. For instance, the Jaina can have no conception of the for- giveness of sin, for to them there is no God against whom they have sinned, but whose property it is to show mercy, and who, by pardoning past failure, can give an oppor- tunity for future conquest. The Jaina, when they do wrong, only feel that they sin against themselves, injure their own characters, and so lose ground on the upward way, and that such lost progress can only be made up after countless ages of useless (because unremembered) suffering. Prayer. Again, a system without a God has no room for prayer, for it knows of no almighty and most merciful Father to whose love and wisdom His children can confide their secret desires ; and to this day the Jaina count it a sin if a mother, watching beside her suffering child, should appeal to some higher power to save the little life. Forgive- ness. THE EMPTY HEART OF JAINISM 293 There is no question that the Jaina feel to be more critical Caste, than the intricate problem of caste in modern India. The one solvent that can ever weaken the grip of those iron fetters is the thought that, despite all barriers and all differences, we have been created by the same Father and are therefore all children of one family ; but a philosophy that denies the Fatherhood of God is able to deny the brotherhood of man ; and the notices on their temple gates show that there are no people in India more caste-bound than the Jaina.^ The negation of a personal God affects also the Jaina idea Moksa. of heaven. The Jaina, as we have seen, think of moksa as a bare place of inaction reached by those who through suffering and austerity have completely killed all their individuality and character and have finally snapped the fetters of rebirth. The Christian, like the Jaina, believes in a state whose bliss we shall never leave, but to the Christian heaven is also that sphere where the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and over which His will has absolute sway. There, in a golden atmosphere of happiness, the re- deemed from all nations, with every power disciplined and developed, move without let or hindrance to accomplish the Divine will. There His servants serve Him, for they see His face. It is a land full of joy and singing, from which all sorrow has vanished, not because the character of its citizens has become so stultified that they can no more feel grief, but because the promise has been fulfilled that ' God Himself shall be with them, and be their God : and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. ... He that overcometh [the jina] shall inherit these things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.' ^ ^ The notice on Hatthisimha's temple in Ahmadabad runs : ' Low- caste servants in attendance on visitors and dogs cannot be allowed to enter the temple.' ■^ Rev. xxi. 3-4 ; 7. 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Misra gunasthanaka. 4. Aviratisamyagdristi gunasthanaka. 5. Desavirati {or Sariiyatasamyata) gunasthanaka. a. Jaghanya desavirati. b. Madhyama desavirati. c. Utkrista desavirati. 6. Pramatta gunasthanaka. 7. Apramatta gunasthanaka. 8. Niyatibadara {or Apurvakarana) gunasthanaka. 9. Aniyatibadara gunasthanaka. 10. Suksmasamparaya gunasthanaka. 11. Upasantamoha gunasthanaka. 12. KsTnamoha gunasthanaka. 13. Sayogikevall gunasthanaka. 14. Ayogikevall gunasthanaka. CL, 103 2 CO ri E 6 to cS OS C/2 "C/} -W 03 03 03 e 03 o3 o3 s 03 i- oj -CO g o3 03

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Rāsabhī, 75. Rasatyāga, 164. Rasendriya, 96. Rathavīrapura, 79 ff. Rati Arati, 130. Ratna Prabhā, 27 1. Ratnapurī, 55. Ratna Traya, see Jewels, the three. Rātribhojana tyāga, 238. Raudradhyāna, 168. Rāvana, 277. Rāyapasenī, 13. Rāyasī padīkamanum, 228. Rebirth, 36, 31, 94, 294. Reflections, see Bhāvanā. Reformation in Europe, 87. Reincarnation, I, 294. Religion, true and false, 247. Re-ordination, 155. Repentance, 155. Results of sin, the eighty-two, 132 ff. Revatī, 67, 277. Reverence, 166, 178. Rhinoceros, 54. Right Conduct,seeConduct,Right. Right Faith, see Faith, Right. Right Knowledge, see Knowledge, Right. Rijukula, 39 n. Rijupālikā river, 39. Rijuvālikā, 39 n. Risabhadatta, 26, 56 n. Risabhadeva, 22 n., 45, 51, III, 152, 158, 170, 2i6n., 274, 312. Risabhanārāca sanghena, 137. Roga parīsaha, 150. Rohagupta, 78. Rohinī, 26 n., 277. Rosary, 243, 254, 279. Rudra, 33, 268, Rules of conduct, the five, see Caritra. Rules for daily life, six, 188. Rupī Ajīva, 106, 108 ff. Sabala, 268. Sabhā mandapa, 281. Sacittaparihāra pratimā, 222. Sacred thread, 81 n. Sacrifice, law of, 295 ff. Sādhārana, 99, 138.

Sadhu, 45, 51 ff., 65, 98, 100, 105, 112, 131, 145 ff., 187 ff.; see also Ascetics. Sadhvl, see Nuns. Sadi sarhsthana, 137. Sagai, 195. Sagara (of time), 51 ff. Sagaropama, 102, 272, 272 n. Sahasara, 270. Saint-wheel worship, 262. Saitavarnana Stuti, 253. Saiva temples, 75. Sajhaya Stavana, 258. Sakadala, 71, HI. Sala tree, 39. Sales!, 102 ff. Salutation, 204 n.; see also Five, Salutation to the. ^alya, 246, 257. Sama, 187. Sama, 268. Samacaturastra santhana, 1 14. Samadhi, 221, 222. Samadhista, 221. Samaga, 39. Samaka or Samaka, 39 n. Samakiti, 271. Samantabhadrasuri, 80 n. SamantopanipatikI asrava, 142. SamatabhavinT, 147. Samavasarana, 191. Samavayanga Sutra, 1 3. ^amavega, 187. Samaya, 98 n., 272 n. Samayika, 2l5ff., 228, 255. Samayika caritra, 155. Samayika pratima, 222. Sambhavanatha, 51, 312. Sambhutivijaya, 70. Samedsikhara, see Sameta Si- khara. Sameta Sikhara, 49, 56 ff. Samiti, the five, 144 ff., 234 ff., 241. Sarhjni pancendriya, loi, 106. Samlinata, 165. Samparyanka posture, 43. Samprati, 73 ff. Samsara, 241. Sarhsara bhavana, 158. Sarrisarl, 96. Saiiiskrit, see Sanskrit. Sariisthana, the five, 1 37. Samudayikl, 143.

INDEX

33^ Samudravijaya, 57. Samuhurtta, see Samurata. Samurata, 196. Samvara (King), 52. Samvara, 144, 259, 306 f. Samvara bhavana, 160. Saiiivaranatha, 277. Sarhvatsari, 166, 220, 259. Sarhvega, /^i? Samavega. Samyak Caritrya, 245. Samyak Darsana, 245. Samyak J nana, 245. Samyaktvamohanlya karma, 180, 187. Samyaktva parisaha, 151. Sarhyama, 154. Sariiyatasamyata Gunasthanaka, 187. Sanatana puja, 252. Sanatkumara, 159, 270. Sancita, 185 n. Sangha, 52, 219 n. Sanghayana, 114. Sanghena, the five, 137. Sanjaya, 91. Sanjvalana, 123. Sanka, 205. Sahkara, 1 10. Sankaracarya, 150, 233. Sankhajl, 67. Sankhasravaka, 276. Sankhyaschool,4n.,90,9l,94,I2l. Sankita, 242. Sanskrit, 15, 231, 254, 286 ff. Sanstaraka Payanna, 14. Santhana, 114. Santhara Payanna, 14. Santhara PorasI, 232. Santharo, 163, 168, 220, 221, 221 n., 222, 258. Santinatha, 55, 213. Santistotra, 80 n. SaptabhangI Naya, 91. Sarada puja, 261. Sarathi Khanda, 31 n. Sarayu river, 50. Sardhapunamiyagaccha, 87. Sarira, 104. Sarira punya, ill. Sarkara Prabha, 271. Sarvanubhuti, 276. Sarvacaritrya, 246. Sarvarthasiddha, 270. SarvavratT, 220. Sasananayaka, 27. Sasvadana Gunasthanaka, i86n. Sasvasadana Gunasthanaka, 186. ^atakaji, 67. Satakasravaka, 276. Sataklrti, 276. Satanika, 40. ^atavedanlya, 113, 179. Satkara doctrine, 90. Satkara parisaha, 151. Satrap period, 280. Satrunjaya, 78, 78 n., 87, 129, 168, 252, 253, 261, 282 ff. Satta, 184. Satya, 154. SatyasrI, 275. Sauca, 154. Saurlpura, 57^. SavathT, see Sravastl. ^ayambhava, 70. Sayana punya, ill. Sayogikevali Gunasthanaka, 190. Sayya parisaha, 1 50. Schism, the great, 12, 72 ff., 78 ff. Schisms, 12, 72 ff. Scriptures, Jaina, 1 1, I3ff. — antiquity of, 16. — preservation of, 261 f. — reading and study of, 16, 240, 258. Sea-voyages, 145. Sects, rise of, 69, 72, 86 ff. — differences between, 23, 28, 30, 3 in., 33, 36, 53 ff., 76 n., 80, no, 112, 155, 167,169,188, 190, 197, 208, 217, 223, 226, 239 ff., 250 ff., 258, 260 ff., 281. Self, 95. Senses, the five, see Indriya. Serpents, see Snakes. Servant-gods, 270. SesavatI, 29. Sevartta sanghena, I37. Seven (the number), 194-6, 198. Shaving, see Hair, removal of. Shells, 227. Siddha, 96, 104, 108, 109, 113 n., 125, 129, 132, 141, 159, 160, 169 ff., 176, 190 ff., 229, 232, 237, 242 ff., 254 ff., 262, 271, 274. — different kinds of, 170. Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/360 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/361 Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/362 INDEX 335 Use, limitation of, see Upabhoga paribhoga parimana. Usna parisaha, 149. Utkrista desavirati, 188. Utpat'ikT, 177. Utsarga, 168. Utsarga samiti, 146. Utsarpini, 272, 276 ff. Uttara, 79. Uttaradhyayana, 14,43, 62, 63, 94, 14711., 14811., 14911., 15011., 239. Uvavai, 13. Vacana bala, 96. Vacanagupti, 147 ff. Vacana punya, 112. Vacana vinaya, 166. Vadha parisaha, 150. VaidaranikI asrava, 142. Vaikreya angopanga, 113. Vaikreya body, see Vaikreya- sarira. VaikreyasarTra, 113, 206. Vaimanika, 105, 181. VainayikI, 177. Vaisall, 21, 31, 41, 66 n. — government of, 22. Vaisaliya, 27. VaisesJKa school, 78, 90, 91, 94. Vaisnava, 230. Vaisramana, 191. VaitaranI, see Veyaranl. Vaiyavacca, 167. Vaiya vrata, 218. Vaiyavritya, see Vaiyavacca. Vajrarisabhanaraca sanghayana, 114'. ■ Vajrasena, 78 ff. VajrasvamT, 78. Vakniyami, 147. Vallabhi, 13, 17. Valu, 268. Valu Prabha, 271. Varna, 48. Vamana saiiisthana, 137. Vanaraja, 83. Vanaspatikaya, 97, 99, 102, 104, 105. Vanavaslgaccha, 80 n. Vanavyantara, 270. Vandana, 255. Van Eycks, the, 281. Vanhidaia, 14. Vanla, see Baniya. Vanijyagrama, 21, 41. Vanita, 52. Varaniya, I32ff. Vardhamana, 27. Vardhamana (village), 41. Varikhilla, 128. Vasaksepa, 226. Vastra parisaha, 1 49. Vastra punya, lioff. Vasu, 54, 56 n. Vasudeva, King, 46, 134. Vasudeva, the nine, 274. Vasumati, 6l. Vasupuja, 54. Vasupujya, 54, 56 n. Vatirh parijanai, 234. VayubhQti, 65. Vayukaya, 97, 99, 102, I04, 105. Vayu Kumara, 269. Veda, 16, 71. Vedanlya karma, 178, 179, 1 84, 190 n. Vedanta school, 90, 91, 95 n., 98 n., 121, i85n. Vedantists, see Vedanta school. Vegetable life, 99. Vegetarianism, 294. Vesaliya, see Vaisaliya. Vestments, 228, 251, 254 f. VetaranT, 268. Veyaranl, 192. Vibhanga jMna, 178. Vidartha, 193. Videha, 40. Vidyadhara, 66. Vidyut Kumara, 269. Vijaya, 270. Vijaya (Acarya), Son. Vijaya (coming Tirthankara), 277. Vijayanta, 270. Vijya, 57. Vikramaditya, yy, y; n. Vimalanatha, 54, 213. VimanavasT, 270. Vinaya, 166. Vindhya, 69. Vipaka Siitra, 13. Vipra, 57. Virajl, 88. Virapasall, 263. Virastava, 15. Virathuo, 15. 33^ INDEX Vlryantaraya karma, 133, 183. Visakhacarya, 80 n. Visnu, 31. Visnu Acarya, 80 n. Visnudeva, King, 54. Vitigaccha, 205. Vivihapannanti, 13. Vivikta carya, 165. Vows, 30, 140 ff., 186. — the five ascetic, 39, 155, 234fif., 241. — of laymen, see Lay-adherents. — advantage of keeping, 220. — of Parsvanatha, the four, 49. Vrata, 205. Vrata pratima, 222. VriddhavadI, yy. Vrihatkalpa, 14. Vrisabhasena, 66. Vrittisanksepa, 164. Vyaktamithyatva Gunasthanaka, 185. Vyantara, 105, 181, 269. Vyavahara Sutra, 14, 145. Vyavaharika Kala, 107 n. Wadhwan, 41, 82, 120 n. Wandering life, 28 ff., 36, 149 ff. Water, 98, no, 2i8. Water-jar, 57. Waves, 98 n. Wedding ceremonies, 198 ff. Wheel, 279. Whisk for insects, 227, 255. Widows, child, 203. Williams, Sir M. Monier, 36. Wind, 99. Women, 56, 67, 121, 166 ff., 169, 188, 203, 263. Wooden buildings, 279. Worship, 25off. — private, 254. — temple, see Temple-worship. Writers, Jaina, 286 ff. Yacana parlsaha, see Yafica p. Yakani, 80. Yaksa, 269. Yanca parlsaha, 150. Yasobhadra, 70. Yasobhadra II, 80 n. Yasoda, 29. Yasodhara, 277. Yasoklrtti namakarma, 115. Yasovati, 29. Yathakhyata caritra, 123, 156. Yathasutracestaniyami, 148. Yati, 233. Yavatkathika, 163. Yenur, 285. Yoga, 141, 162, 165, 174, 188, 242. — karma, 174. — sarhllnata, 165. — Sastra, 288. — school, 91. — the three, 141, 162. Young Men's Associations, 288 n. Zoroastrianism, see Parsis. Printed in England at the Oxford University Press

1. E. W. Hopkins, The Religions of India, p. 283.
2. Imperial Gasetteer of India (New Edition), i. 417.
3. E. W. Hopkins, op. cit., p. 282.
4. As now generally accepted, the dates are
   for Mahāvīra, 599-527 B.C.
   and for Buddha, 557-477 B.C.

   If these dates be correct, then Mahāvīra and Buddha were for thirty years contemporaries.

5. 'Happy are we, happy live we who call nothing our own; when Mithilā is on fire, nothing is burnt that belongs to me.' Uttarādhyayana, S.B.E., xlv, p. 37.
6. Some European scholars doubt this, but all the Jaina the writer has met believe it most strongly; and the aim of this book throughout is to present the Jaina point of view and to reflect current Jaina opinions.
7. 'At one time, his manifold savings are a large treasure. Then at another time, his heirs divide it, or those are without a living steal it, or the king takes it away, or it is ruined in some way or other, or it is consumed by the conflagration of the house.' Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 20.
8. It seems probable that the atheistic (anti-Brāhmanic) system of philosophy-the Sāṅkhya-also arose amongst the Kṣatriya. Jaina philosophy, as we shall see later, has much in common with this.
9. 'The binding of animals (to the sacrificial pole), all the Vêdas, and sacrifices, being causes of sin, cannot save the sinner; for his works (or Karman) are very powerful.' Uttarādhyayana, S.B.E., xlv, p. 140.
10. Sūtrakritāṅga, S.B.E., xlv, p. 294.
11. Ibid., p.366.
12. Uttarādhyayana, S.B.E., xlv, p. 136 ff.
13. 'By one's actions one becomes a Brāhmaṇa or a Kshattriya or a Vaiśya or a Śūdra... him who is exempt from all Karman we call a Brāhmaṇa.' Uttarādhyayana, S.B.E., xlv, p. 140. See also Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 45.
14. Other traditions give 545 and 467.
15. Other traditions, however, put the date as late as a.d. 467 or even a.d. 513.
16. Sthānakavāsī Jaina do not recognize the Mahāniśītha or the Jitakalpa.
17. Some Śvetāmbra jaina do not accept the Jitakalpa but add another Mūḷagrantha.
18. Imperial Gazetteer of India, ii, p. 261.
19. At any rate he built thrity-two temples to atone for the sins of his teeth!
20. Vincent Smith, Early history of India, third edition, p. 455.
21. See art. Bhakti Mārga in E.R.E.
22. Hoernle, J.A.S.B., 1898, p. 40.
23. Many devout laymen and laywomen repeat them every day at their morning devotions.
24. All mothers of Tīrthaṅkara see first of all this elephant in their dreams, excepting only the mother of Ṛiṣabhadeva, who saw a bull first, hence the child’s name.
25. The Sthānakavāsī say there were two garlands.
26. In all the pictures of this moon vision a stag is seen in the centre of the moon. The general belief of all Indians is that there is either a stag or a hare inhabiting the moon. There are a score or more of names for the moon in Sanskrit, and a dozen at least are derived from this belief. The villagers, however, find in the moon an old woman spinning a wheel and a she-goat standing by her.
27. The Digambara assert that she saw the sun before the dream about the moon.
28. According to the Tapagaċċha sect the pole was topped by a temple roof.
29. The Sthānakavāsī believe this abode to have been a huge immovable car as big as a city.
30. A really orthodox Jaina, however, would deny the title of Jaina altogether to any one who did not hold these and all the other legends mentioned in this book to be literally and historically true, though varying interpretations of them are given.
31. The Jaina believe that Indra (or Śakra), the chief of the sixty-four gods of that name, belongs especially to them, but has been stolen from them by the Brāhmans.
32. It is interesting to compare with this the story of Kṛiṣṇa being removed from the womb of Devakī to that of Rohiṇī, for the Jaina believe Kṛiṣṇa to be one of their own future Tīrthaṅkara.
33. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S.B.E, xxii, p. 192.
34. Or Nāyaputra, sometimes Nātaputta.
35. Kalpa Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 250.
36. He had five nurses: a wet nurse, a nurse to wash him, one to dress him, one to play with him, and one to carry him.
37. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 194.
38. See below, Twelve Vows of a Layman, p. 205.
39. The Śvetāmbara call the park Sundavana, the Digambara Sārathi Khaṇḍa.
40. The Jaina believe that when an ascetic who will eventually develop into Tīrthaṅkara is about to give away his possessions, the god Indra bestows on him all the wealth that has been buried in forgotten treasure stores, in order that the amount to be given away may be worthy of the giver.
41. This sort of throne is called a Pāṇḍuśilā, and in Jaina temples Mahāvīra's image is generally kept on one.
42. The Kalpa Sūtra gives quite a different account, in which it says that Mahāvīra fasted for two-and-a-half days after all the pomp, and then, ‘Quite alone, nobody else being present, he tore out his hair, and leaving the house entered the state of houselessness’. Kalpa Sūtra, S.B.E., xxii, p. 259.
43. नवरो बेठो नखोद वाळे.
44. The Brāhmans had tried to avoid some of the more obvious abuses by restricting entrance to the fourth āśrama to men of mature years, who had passed through a long course of preparatory discipline.
45. Lecture on Jainism. Agra, 1902, p. 69.
46. Buddhism, p. 530.
47. There is a Gujarātī couplet:

    ‘Water should be allowed to flow that it become not stagnant,
    Monks should be allowed to wander that they may be stainless.’

    A Sanskrit proverb runs : ‘A monk who wanders is worshipped.’

48. Kalpa Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, pp. 260, 261.
49. Also called Jṛimbhilā or Jṛimbhikagrāma.
50. Or Samāka or Sāmaka.
51. Or Ṛijukula, or Ṛijuvālikā.
52. If Mahāvīra had preached before he got Kevala jñāna, his sermons would have contained some mistakes; now of course they were perfect.
53. See Introduction, S. B.E., xxii, p. xxxi.
54. See, for instance, Jain Itihās series, No. 1, a lecture by Lāla Benārsi Dāss, M.A., Agra, 1902.
55. They declare that this mistake was never made by Jaina, only by European scholars.
56. Otherwise: Suṣama Duḥṣamā.
57. There have been twelve of these great rulers, and these with the twenty-four Tīrthaṅkara, nine Baḷadeva, nine Vāsudeva, and nine Prati-vāsudeva make up the sixty-three Great Heroes of the Jaina.
58. Ṛiṣabhadeva, Vāsupūjya, Neminātha and Mahāvīra.
59. See p. 121.
60. E. R, E., vol. i.
61. The Sthānakavāsī Jaina do not believe that Akampita was the brother of Gautama; they think he was only a friend.
62. Ċandana was the daughter of Ċetaka, king of Vaiśālī; and this Ċetaka was either the brother or the father of Triśalā, Mahāvīra's mother.
63. The Sthānakavāsī legend differs a good deal. Ċandana according to this was captured in warfare and sold by a soldier into the house where she was ill-treated.
64. Save that whilst the Brāhmans believe that karma acts indirectly through the agency of God, the Jaina hold that it acts automatically.
65. Bhandarkar, Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts in 1883–4, p. 101.
66. An analysis of the Nine Categories is given in the Appendix.
67. S.B.E., xlv, p. 154.
68. Bhandarkar, Search for Sanskrit MSS. in 1883–4, p. 106.
69. S.B.E., xxii, p. 3.
70. Much confusion has arisen through not distinguishing the Jaina use of the word prāṇa from the Vedāntist, with whom it means breath, and who say that there are five vital prāṇa or breaths.
71. Cp. S. B. E., xlv, p. 212.
72. With the Jaina, however, these words do not seem to bear quite the usual English connotation. Living things are sometimes considered neuter, and non-living things male or female.
73. A Vedāntist would not use the word devatā to express an evil spirit, and this has sometimes led to confusion.
74. Sanskrit Dvīndriya, Trīndriya, Ċaturindriya, Pañċindriya.
75. It is interesting to compare these divisions with those of Gośāla, which they much resemble.
76. Dr. Jacobi shows how this and the other animistic beliefs of Jainism point to its antiquity. S. B. E., xlv, p. xxxiii.
77. Antarmuhūrtta.
78. Jaina differ from some other schools of thought in believing that it is possible for the jīva inhabiting a man to be so weighed down by evil karma that it may in its very next rebirth have to pass into an Ekendriya Pṛithvīkāya, or earth life. They also differ, of course, from the Vedāntists, who believe in one all-soul, not in numberless individual souls like these.
79. Compare 'the heroes (of faith), humbly bent, (should retain their belief in) the illustrious road (to final liberation) and in the world (of water bodies)'. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, p. 5.
80. Some Jaina think it is forty-eight moments.
81. Jaina, like many Hindus, believe that waves are caused by submarine fire in the bed of the ocean.
82. Samaya.
83. In the Uttarādhyayana it is expressly stated that fire lives do exist in lightning. S. B. E., xlv, p. 217.
84. In one potato there are countless bodies, and in each body countless lives exist.
85. Dr. Jacobi points out that plants and animals, being admitted by all to be living beings, were considered a better support of the hylozoistic theory than wind. Āċārāṅga Sūtra, S. B. E., xxii, p. 9.
86. Mr. W. Crooke, for instance, says (Imperial Gazetteer, vol. i, p. 416), 'They wear a screen of cloth before their mouths, lest they should unwittingly inhale and destroy animal life.'
87. Or Leśā.
88. Jaina divisions are not, unfortunately for the student, mutually exclusive, and even include the whole along with its parts.
89. Sthānakavāsī say pink.
90. Sanskrit manas.
91. It will be remembered that demi-gods were the fourth subdivision of Pañċendriya.
92. The ordinary meaning of Dharma and Adharma is of course merit and demerit, or right conduct and unrighteousness, as Dr. Jacobi^[93] and Dr. Bhandarkar^[94] translate them; but all the Jaina that I have met in India assure me that these two words are here used in a special technical sense which we shall better understand as we discuss these divisions.
93. Introduction, S. B. E., xlv, p. xxxiv.
94. Dr. Bhandarkar, Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts, p. 96. Dr. Bühler falls into the same trap, Indian Sect of the Jaina, p. 9
95. Sans. Kāla.
96. Pudgaḷa (Sans. pudgala) is roughly translated by Jaina as 'matter'.
97. Or Vyavahārika Kāḷa.
98. Addhāsamaya.
99. Dr. Griswold draws attention in this connexion to Bergson's doctrine of Time in his Creative Evolution.
100. In order that the uninitiated may realize this deep truth, the following legend is told. Once a king crossed a stream wherein a dead dog lay, and to avoid the smell held a cloth across his nose. When he asked his prime minister why he did not do likewise, he replied that he knew his Jaina philosophy, and realized that it was of the nature of pudgaḷa to be sometimes sweet and sometimes evil smelling. Seeing his master unconvinced, he secretly drew water from the very place where the corpse of the dog lay, and, having filtered, iced and spiced it, offered it to the king, who drank it with delight. Afterwards learning its source, he learnt also that the same pudgaḷa may sometimes be of a sweet odour and sometimes of an evil one.
101. The Digambara include Puṇya under Āśrava (see p. 139).
102. i. e. destruction of life.
103. We shall find constant examples of the influence Kṛiṣṇa worship has on the Jaina. Many of them read and love the Bhagavadgītā almost as much as the Hindus, though it is not one of their scriptures.
104. They point out the following mistake in the Imperial Gazetteer of India (Oxford, 1907), vol. i, p. 417: 'The Dhondiyas, who worship their gurus', by which they complain that their feelings have been wounded.
105. Not from the Siddha, who take no interest in anything earthly.
106. Lecture by Mr. Lāla Benārsi Dāss, Jain Itihās Society, Agra, 1902, pp. 1 ff.
107. Popatlāl K. Shāh, Jaina Dharma Nirūpaṇa, p. 33.
108. This is strangely contradictory of the general aim of the whole system, which is none other than the gradual and complete stultification of character.
109. In another aspect such offences are regarded by the Jaina as a form of stealing.
110. Lāla Benārsi Dāss, loc. cit., p. 75.
111. That even when angry with reason a guru must govern his anger the following legend shows. Once a guru had an impertinent disciple, and as the master sat engaged in his evening Paḍīkamaṇuṁ, thinking over his sins of the day, the disciple reminded him that he had walked on and killed a frog, and must perform prāyaśċitta for this sin. Now the guru had not killed a frog, the one seen by the young man having been hurt by other passers-by; and feeling that at any rate it was not a novice's part to remind him of it, the guru leapt up from his seat, brush in hand, determined to chastise the cheeky youngster; unfortunately for himself, he rushed against a pillar and dashed his brains out.

     The poor guru having died in a fit of anger slipped far down below the human level he had been on, and was reborn not as a man but as a snake, in fact a cobra. He took up his abode in an ant-hill near Waḍhwān and became, sad to say, not only a cobra, but a very bad cobra, who bit everybody who came near him; at last he established a reign of terror, and the road leading past the ant-hill was deserted through fear of him.

     At this time Mahāvīra was alive, and his peregrinations happened to bring him to Waḍhwān; despite all his friends' warnings, he determined to remedy this evil; so he went out and sat down on the snake's ant-hill and meditated there. The enraged cobra dashed out and bit him over and over again, but Mahāvīra continued his meditations. Suddenly, as he looked at the master, all his former life came back to the snake's memory, he repented of his wrath, and ever after allowed little boys to chase him and ants to walk over him unmolested, and eventually died in the odour of sanctity. He is now steadily mounting the ladder of higher births.

112. Jaina children are taught to remember these different sorts of conceit in little rhymes much like those of Jane Taylor's which we children of a Western growth learnt in our childhood. Legends too are told showing the result of each of the eight kinds of conceit. As an example of the evil results brought about by pride, hear the sad story of Mariċī, the son of Bharata, King of India. Bharata was the son of Ṛiṣabhadeva, the first Tīrthaṅkara, and it was revealed to him that his son should become a Tīrthaṅkara in a future life. Overhearing this, Mariċī became very conceited and danced and jumped with joy. As a consequence of showing too much emotion a fetter (ṭāṅkuṁ) was formed, and this bound Mariċī to become a beggar in his next incarnation, though nothing of course could prevent his eventually becoming a Tīrthaṅkara, which he did as Mahāvīra.
113. It is a common complaint amongst the Jaina that so many of their gurus are extraordinarily ignorant of their own religion.
114. Other Indians also believe strongly in the virtue of the Jaina vows. It is said, for instance, that the mother of Mr. Gāndhī, the South African leader, though herself a Vaiṣṇava, persuaded her son before he left Rājkot for England to vow in front of Pūjya Beċarajī, a famous Jaina sadhu, that he would abstain from wine, flesh and women.
115. See p. 187.
116. i. e. beauty.
117. i. e. literature and oratory.
118. Of the six classes.
119. Unless he be a follower of either Ātmārāmajī or Āṇandavijayajī, when he will wear yellow clothes.
120. The followers of Śrīlālajī, however, who are found mainly in Mālwā, never live in an Apāsaro lest they should be held guilty of the lives destroyed in building it.
121. Or Ċaraṇānuyoga.
122. Or Karaṇānuyoga.
123. The Āċārya, acting with the community, excommunicates for religious offences; but for offences against society the Mahājana (committee of leading Baniyā) excommunicates.
124. Notes on Modern Jainism, pp. 86 ff.
125. The writer once saw flowers offered even in a Digambara temple at Borsad (Kaira district).