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________________ // jaina bhavana // July 1970 JAIN a quarterly on jainology JAIN BHAWAN PUBLICATION
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________________ Excerpt from Sutrakrtanga 1 Saith the Dust 2 Leona Smith Kremser Late Kasturmal Banthia 4 On Meditations for Kevala 6 P. C. Dasgupta Paumacariu 9 Svayambhudeva An Introduction to Jaina Logicians and their Logic 15 Pushpa Bothra Nihnavas 20 Basistha Narayan Sinha Two Unique Inscribed Jaina Sculptures 24 Sudhin De The Misery-its what, why and how 27 Pradyumna Kumar Jain Gleanings 36 Books received 38 Sri Mahavir Jaina Vidyalaya Golden Jubilee Volume (Review) 39 Books on Jainology 48 Saith the Dust 1 (coloured painting) Lord Basupujya 24
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________________ Books Received ADHIKARI, RAMCHANDRA, Jaina Sasaner Digdarsan (Bengali), Pari Chand Bothra, Calcutta, 1970. Pages 52. Short exposition of the tenets of Jainism in relation to other Indian thoughts. BAID, MAN SINGH, Adars Sravak Sri Sagarmalji Baid (Hindi), Hanutmal Baid, Bombay, 1970. Pages 168. Life of Sagarmal Baid who died at the age of ninety. CATURVEDI, BANARASIDAS, Ek Yug : Ek Purus (Hindi), Sasta Sahitya Mandal, New Delhi, 1969. Pages 14+270. Life of Siremal Bapna, humanitarian administrator of Indore. DASGUPTA, PREMAMAYA, Bimbisara-Kharavela Kramanupanji o Hati-gumpha Silalipi tathyer Jaina-vyakhya (Bengali). Pages 74+ xxxvi. Presents new chronology of Bimbisara-Kharavela and Jaina explanation of Hathigumpha Inscription. JAIN, NIRAJ, Khajuraho-ke Jain Mandir (Hindi), Nirmal Jain, Satna, 1967. Pages 48. Price 50 Paise. Describes the Jaina temples of Khajuraho. Illustrated.. NAIR, V. G., Jainism and Terahpanthism, with a Preface by Muni Raj yash. Shri Adinath Jain Swetambar Temple, Bangalore, 1970. Pages xxxvi +138+11. Price Rs. 2.00. Criticises the tenets of the Jaina Svetambara Terapanth sect and its founder Acarya Bhiksu. NAIR, V. G., Research in Religion Rule and Reform, Union of Uni versal Welfare, Polal, 1970. Pages 31. Gives short life sketch of Lord Rsabhanatha, the first Jaina Tirthankara. PUTTASWAMY, D., Karkal, (Kannad, Hindi & English) Vivekabhyu daya Karyalaya, Mangalore, 1969. Pages 48. Price 60 Paise. Guide to Jaina temples of Karkal. Illustrated. PUTTASWAMY, D., Moodabidri, (Kannad, Hindi & English) Vivekabhyudaya Karyalaya, Mangalore, 1967. Pages 10+9+8. Price Re. 1.00 Guide to the Jaina temples of Moodabidri. Illustrated.
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________________ BOOK REVIEW SRI MAHAVIR JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME, edited by a Board of Editors and published by Hon. Secretaries of the Vidyalaya from Gowalia Tank Road, Bombay 26, 1968. Part I, Pages xxiv+335+83+420 (D. Crown 1/8), Price Rs. 35.00 and Part II, Pages 24+224+248 (D. Crown 1/8), Price Rs. 15.00. As it appears, perhaps in atonement of its long indifference to cultivate things literary and scholastic, the Jaina community of India during a brief span of the past few years has produced a number of bulky volumes to honour its individuals and institutions. The two parts of the Sri Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Golden Jubilee Volume, now under review, take their place among them. This volume running in all a little over 1300 pages was printed on the occasion of the completion of fifty years by the school which runs a chain of educational institutions on the West Coast under the secterian patronage of the prosperous Jaina community there. Of these about 224 pages contained at the commencement of Part II are dedicated to recount the story of the steady growth of the school from its inception to date. Its principal work has been in the field of education where the pursuit of a general curriculum is supplemented by spiritual training and cultural activities. But no less has been its interest in the field of reproducing standard works in Jaina literature. The school has already brought out a revised edition of Hemacandra's Kavyanusasana a celebrated work in Indian poetics, and is going ahead with an ambitious project of bringing out a critical edition of the Ardhamagadhi canon with its commentaries in Prakrit and Sanskrit. But it has done a little more specialisation in the production of commemoration volumes in which the present one under review was preceded in 1956 by another in honour of a Jaina Acarya Vijayavallabha Suri.
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL Since education is an important window to the past and equips man for the future, any institution that is dedicated to this commendable role is rendering useful service, and by this criterian the school has reason to be proud of its achievement during the past half a century of its existence. During this period, it has trained many that have left a mark on the life of the society and brought it within the main stream of contemporary life. The Gujarati version of the life-story of the school in Part II is fairly exhaustive ; but the reviewer feels that since the story is one of much wider interest, a summary of this in English, if not a verbatim rendering of the entire 224 page material into that language, would have brought it within the grasp of the wider world of academicians who do not have the equipment of the Gujarati language. The suggestion may be worth keeping in view at the time of the diamond jubilee of the school a few years hence. In the educational sphere of this country, linguistic diversity is fast becoming a barrier between one region and another, and at a not very distant future we Indians between one region and another may be confronted with a situation in which we understand the foreigners better than we do one another. When this happens, particularly in the field of research, we may not know what people are really doing in different parts of this country. On international plane, to resolve such a difficulty, important documents use English and French side by side. In this country, where we have more than a dozen officially recognised regional languages, and since these are being increasingly used these days, much output, particularly in the field of research may but evoke a limited interest and may be virtually non-existent for the rest who do not have the equipment of a particular language. It is time therefore we start the practice of providing in English a summary of important findings of all the research papers produced in regional languages including Hindi so that they may not get lost to the world of scholarship. ervation should assume great relevance in the context of the volume currently under review where not only the history of the school but the majority of research papers on themes of Jaina cultural interest, this latter portion alone running over a little less than 600 pages--are produced in Gujarati. The plea should not be misconstrued as a disparagement of a regional language which can be developed only through increasing use; the intention is to impress the necessity of bringing the outcome of research within the reach of a wider world of scholarship. For this still English is an invaluable medium. In this connection the reviewer cites an instance which the editor of this Journal only recently brought to his notice. A couple of years back, Sramana, the Journal of the P.V. Research Institute, Varanasi, had printed an article in Hindi
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________________ JULY, 1970 on researches in Jainology currently in progress in India. The Editor had preferred to put the whole thing in English in a recent issue of this Journal and he has already started receiving communication from scholars from abroad who are interested in Jainology. 41 In terms of authors and dignitaries and works, the assortment presented in the volume has a wide coverage. Among the former, we have Haribhadra, Sthulabhadra, Siddhasena, Sripala, Vastupala, Kanakakusala, Hemacandra, Yasovijaya, Megharaja, Hemaratna and others and among the latter the more important, that have been used are Pramana-mimansa, Yogabindu, Parasika-prakasa, Vasudhara-dharani, Bhagavadgita, Kuvalayamala and Bhagavati Sutra. There are philosophical topics like jnana, pratyaksa, sat-asat, atman, parinama, anekanta, etc. There are dogmatic topics too on prayascitta and samlekhana. Some papers are devoted to Jaina literature and philology while others deal Jaina art, history and archaeology. There are important plates, cluding a few in miniature paintings from early Jaina manuscripts. The overall production of the volume is pleasant and praiseworthy. A review of a volume like this is easy as well as difficult. It is easy because there is no single thread connecting one article with another and the reviewer is at liberty to take specific notice of the more important ones. At the same time it is difficult because the contributions collected together cover a wide field, from general literature at one extreme to pecialised branches like art, archaeology, grammar, rhetoric, phonetics and mathematics. To review such a thing one need be a general practitioner rather than a specialist. Two observations may however be pertinent, one applying to all collections of articles which are often making appearance these days and another specific to the volume under review. A volume of collections to be more useful need follow a certain line of classification of articles, as has been done, for instance, in the case of the Ramakrishna Mission Publication entitled Cultural Heritage of India. When it is absent, as it often is in all Jaina Commemoration volumes the reviewer has come across, it causes a certain amount of bewilderment to the reader. This bewilderment has been increased in the case of the volume under review by the fact that the two bunches of articles in Gujarati have been set in two different parts at a distance of at least 728 pages from each other. A better presentation would have been to start with history of the school in Part I, followed by all the articles in Gujarati in the same part, duly classified of course, and to include the entire material in English and Hindi in the second part. Coming to specific articles in Gujarati in Part I, the first article by Rasiklal C. Parikh considers Haribhadra Suri's Jnana-tattva-cintana.
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL Jnana (knowledge) has been viewed as an invaluable aid to salvation in all the Indian religious attitudes, the more so in the Jaina where the liberated souls are characterised more by omniscience than anything else. This is followed by another article on the notion of pratyaksa as it is discussed in Hemacandra's Pramana-mimansa. Pt. Dalsukh Malvania has made an exhaustive discussion on vyavahara and niscaya naya of the Agamic age. The notion of sat-asat, nitya-anit ya, etc., is important in Indian religious tradition and Pt. Sukhlal Sanghvi has presented a brief and neat comparative study on this based on Haribhadra's Anekanta-jayapataka. Mansukhlal T. Mehta's article 'Possession : the Root of Crimes' should be of topical interest in view of the express antagonism to the possessor class at this time and the rise of extremist philosophy like the one propounded by Herbert Marcuse which has detected 'irrationality' in the existing system and desires its early demolition. There are two articles : one on poet Sripala and another on merchant prince Bastupala, both of the kingdom of Patana. There is an anthology of verses from Yati Kanakakusala, a poet from Kaccha, and another, a hymn dedicated to the twentyfour Tirthankaras by a Gujrati poet Lavanyasamaya. Though Jainism has no place for bhaktivada, some Jaina devotees have taken their cue from their Hindu counterparts and written poems expressing devotion to the liberated souls. This literature, though less known than the Vaisnava literatures of the Hindus, is pretty rich and claims many celebrated writers like Anandaghana and Cidananda. On this literature in Gujrati Pannalal R. Shah has made an important contribution. Muni Ramanikavijay has edited a long poem entitled Ananda-sandhi written in Apabhramsa by Vinaya Candra, a disciple of Ratnasimha Suri. Ramanlal C. Shah has written an exhaustive article on Vacaka Megharaja's Nala-Damayanti-carita. Vijayarai K. Vaidya throws light on the medieval Jaina writers of Gujarat. Pt. Bechardas J. Doshi has written on a Persian encyclopaedia entitled Parasika-prakasa compiled by one Krishnadas Misra. Manjulal R. Mazumdar has written on folk life of Gujarat. Prabhasa Sankar Teraiya's contribution deals with dvirukta (reproductives) in Gujarati language. Of Ludwig Alsdorf's essay on Itthiparinna, a work on chanda (metre), there is a Gujarati translation by Arunodaya. N. Jani Narasimha L. Shah writes on Jaina Mathematics and its significance. Hirabahen R. Pathak's long essay on viraha (separation of love) would be read with interest. Viraha has been an important element in the works of many poets, dramatists and fiction-writers. Muni Jinavijaya has written on Jaina poet Hemaratna's heroic poem entitled Gora-Vadal-Padmanikatha-caupai. Muni Punyavijaya has written on the lesser known inscriptions and panegyrics of Vastupala ; they have been quoted at length. Sri Saraju B. Doshi has contributed an illustrated article on the
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________________ JULY, 1970 ancient palm-leaf paintings obtained from Jaina bhandara in the Mysore. Some of these writings should be of wider interest. Comparatively weak is the Hindi section only with nine papers. Sadhvi Nirmala has written a comparative essay on atma-vada. Within a narrow span she has compiled diverse Indian attitudes on atman with the Jaina relegated to the end. No comparison has, however, been instituted. K. Risabhachandra has contributed two papers, one on the spread of Jainism in different regions in the country and another on the Pauranic literature of the Jainas. The Pauranic literature of the Jainas is very much posterior to that of the Hindu and is very much influenced by the latter in its style and presentation, though the theme of the two are distinctly separate. The dominant theme of the Jaina Pauranic literature is the life of the Tirthankaras along with that of the Cakravartis, Baladevas, Vasudevas, Prativasudevas, etc. Jinasenacarya's definition of Purana as anything old is interesting and when more than one dominant personality is taken note of it becomes Mahapurana. Much of the Jaina Pauranic literature is still in manuscript in the private collections and may be of interest to researchers. There is an essay by Agarchand Nahata and Bhanwarlal Nahata on some unknown writings on the Kharatara gaccha Acaryas, and another by Kailash Chandra Shastri on Acarya Siddhasena of the Digambara order. Rajaram Jain writes on the celebrated Apabhramsa poet Raidhu who flourished in Central India. Bhanwarlal Nahata has written on a long scroll running 32 feet in length, of which 17 feet contain illustrative paintings and the rest provide an explanation in prose and poetry written in Sanskrit and Marwari languages. The text has been provided at length. The whole thing is a good specimen of workmanship. Devendra Kumar Jain has provided a catalogue of Apabhramsa literature. The last article is on the Jaina archaeological remains of the 'Parasnath kila' in the district of Bijnaur in U.P. The English section has some very stimulating papers. In presenting the comparative stand of the Jainas and the Sankhya-Yoga School on parinama, Indukala M. Jhaveri is confronted with the problem that if "Jiva and pudgala are fundamentally different from each other how the transformations of the one can ever be related to those of the other". The dichotomy is over-emphasized and the timeless association of the two seems to have been lost sight of. Her feeling that in
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL Samkhya, purusas and praksti "never come in real contact" may perhaps be disputed. Besides, are praksti and pudgala interchangable expressions? The two brief articles by Nathmal Tatia seek evaluation of two Jaina tenets in the light of the Buddhist stand and yet they raise more issues than they resolve. The first article is a brief study of the Jaina anekanta vis-s-vis the Buddhist madhyama-pratipada. One wonders if the two are really comparable or if anekanta was developed to shelter both hedonism and asceticism, as Tatia desires us to believe, while the Buddha was carving a 'middle course'. The second article considers samlekhana or suspension of aliment till death which the Jaina monk and laity alike, considers a pious way of cutting the bondage of the material body. But on the authority of Tattvarthabhasya, Tatia gives the impression that this mode of discarding body is resorted to under condition of age, disease and decrepitude' when the life has forfeited its moral justification'. He quotes at length from Buddaghosa's Samantapasadika to support the alleged Jaina stand. While it is debatable if physical disability entails spiritual and moral bankruptcy', it is worth investing how many samlekhana cases among the Jainas were really occasioned by a growing sense of bankruptcy and how many in the ecstacy of entering the domain of piety. His reference to Gandhi's fasts in this connection is irrelevant, since these were intended neither to put an end to the ailing body as with the Buddhist Buddhaghosa nor to enter into a state of salvation as with a devout Jaina but were purely self-purificatory, as he himself used to say. V. M. Kulkarni in the course of a lengthy article strives to establish on the basis of scanty evidence the Jaina acceptance of syabhavavada (Naturalism) without objectively checking it with the Jaina notion of timelessness of the universe on the one hand and the outcome of karma on the other. This is not to deny their inherent nature to ajiva items; but so far as the jivas are concerned in the Jaina view, they are only subject to their own acts which they may consciously determine. The logical and historical significance of the Jaina philosophical tradition by K. K. Dixit has produced a curious and controversial thesis that on the crucial question of permanence and transcience the Jainas agree more closely with the Buddhist than withi the Nyaya-Vaisesika view. His view on the historical position of Jainsm needs a little recast. Padmanabha S. Jaini's Vasudhara-dharani, which is a magic formula derived from the Buddhiste now in use in Gujarat by the Svetambara Jaina community in their wpasrayas as a useful text for the material prosperity of their lay followers (italics provided by the reviewer) should be read with interest In-its degenerate state, Buddhism had created many magic formulae which were widely used in India and the adjoining states of Tibet and Nepal is interestt ing to learn that while most of them could not gutlivec the onslaugh
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________________ JULY, 1970 of Sankara, Vasudhara-dharani still thrives in the abode of the Svetambara monks on the West Coast. The full text is provided. Gustav Roth has written a learned paper on the Prakrit word 'tai' (tyagi in Sanskrit) which stands for a frenouncer'. The word however does not find place in the epithets of the Jaina Tirthankaras and wherever in later Jaina literature it has been used, it stands for a saint like that'. Its use is thus more recent, and its interpretation as 'a saviour' by savants like Atmaramji is not strictly speaking correct. The word smacks of the cult of bhakti (devotion) and has been popular only with such Jainas as uphold the bhakti cult. Nagin J. Shah's 'Nature of Time' is a comparative study starting with the western viewpoint and ending with the Jaina, the Hindu and the Buddhist coming in between. The author rejects the claim of 'Time as an independent substance', as claimed by the Jainas, and prefers to call it the modes of five substances'. Cailette Caillat has made a scholarly study of the religious prayascittas (atonement) mostly restricting the investigation to the Svetambaras oldest doctrine. The reviewer would prefer to call them 'confe as frequent as possible, in vogue in the holy order, followed by some danda (punishment) prescribed by the senior (not necessarily Acarya). Whatever its spiritual value, it has inculcated a habit of submission and perpetuated discipline in the order. The nature of punishment varies according to the intensity of the lapse, from the prescription of some physical discipline to demotion in rank, even expulsion from the order in extreme case. Jainism in the days of Mahavira had a living contact with the western fringe of Bengal, though the reception accorded to the last Tirthankara was not always palatable. The story has been recountered by historian R. C. Majumdar on the basis of Jaina texts. He is of opinion that Jainism declined in Bengal after the 7th century A.D. though on the western fringe there are still some local people, the Saraks, for instance, who are professedly Jaina (Italics provided by reviewer). R. C. Sharma has written on the 'Jaina Sculptures of the Gupta age in the state Museum of Lucknow', B. N. Puri on 'Jainism in Mathura in the Early Centuries of the Christian Era', and Ambalal P. Shah on 'Some Inscriptions and Images on Mount Satrunjaya'. The Kuvalayamala of Uddyotana Suri is an important Prakrit campu which was critically edited by A. N. Upadhye and published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1959. The work was taken note of as early as 1909 and during these fifty years a number of scholars have worked on it. A. N. Upadhye has written a review article on their work. Jayantabhatta's Agamadambara, a four-act play written in the 9th century A.D. throws light on the practical religious life of various sects in vogue' at that time in Kashmir. The work is reviewed by Anantalal Thakur. On the basis of a parallelism between the ninth chapter of the Uttara
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL dhyayana Sutra and the well-known story of Janaka Videhin in the Mahabharata, J.P. Thaker has questioned the genuineness of at least three slokas (34-36) in that chapter of the Jaina Sutra which it is for the scholars to resolve. S. N. Ghosal writes on the Non-inflected Genitive in Apabhramsa' on the basis of Hemacandra's observation in his Prakrit Grammar as examined by a number of western scholars. M. L. Nigam has written on the 'Glimpses of Jainism through Archaeology in UttarPradesh'. J. C. Sikdar has made 'A brief Survey of Phonetics and mar as found in the Bhagavati Sutra'. Yogendra Misra seeks to establish that the Sindhudesa of Jaina literature is Tirabhukti in north Bihar. Not only Sindhudesa but a good many places of Jaina interest including the sacred Pava in Bihar will change their location on proper investigation. Further research in Jaina traditional geography is essential. Ramesh N. Jain has collected the Jaina and non-Jaina versions of the two popular tale of Candana-Malayagiri from Prakrit and other early literary sources'. The spiritual purpose behind this popular story has been to describe the calamities that befall a man's life on account of his own past deeds and to indicate that these can be done by implicit faith in the Jaina doctrines. Satya Ranjan Banerjee's paper entitled 'Fragments of the earliest Eastern Prakrit Grammarians (Sakalya, Mandavya, Kohala and Kapila' was read at the All India Oriental Conference in 1960. There are three articles on archaeology, of which the most exhaustive and illustrated one is due to M.A. Dhaky on 'Some Early Jaina Temples in Western India'. Its coverage includes the Mahavira Temple at Ossia, the same at Varman, at Ghanerav and at Sewadi, Parsvanath Temple at Pali and at Sadri, Adinath Temple at Nadlai and Jaina Temples at Nadol, all erected between the eighth and early eleventh century in Rajasthan. The author's conclusion is worth quoting : "The survey ... reveals a curious fact that a large majority of them were sacred to Jina Mahavira. .......(Tradition was that) Mahavira Himself had visited Marubhumi or Western Rajasthan ... There is, albeit, no support to this tradition in Jaina Agama texts. We are, today, indebted to this tradition, parenthetically, for the fillip it gave to the intensive art and architectural activities by the Jainas in Western India." Equally learned and illustrated is the last article entitled 'New Documents of Jaina Paintings' running over 50 pages by Moti Chandra and Umakant P: Shah. The coverage is for Western India and the formative period of this art was the first half of the 15th century. The authors state that "the manuscript material so far available shows that there was a definite attempt to improve the quality of the drawing and colours and that a certain degree of latitude was allowed to the painters to express their ideas in their own way." In course of time this developed into a new movement in painting which spread far in northern India and influenced
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________________ JULY, 1970 not only other Jaina sects notably Digambaras but also the Vaisnavas in the production of their manuscripts. The new movement was not only rich in drawing material used therein but also in new ideas and influences that were incorporated. The last section in Gujarati in Part II is entitled lokopayogi sahitya or popular literature. Apart from a few articles that are of interest to 'the students there are others which may be of wider interest, e.g., one on the triratna another on Srimad Rajacandra's 'Darsana-prabhavaka' Moksamala a third on the practice of yoga in Jaina philosophy a further on Srimad Yaovijaya Gani's Vijayollasa-mahakavya, and so on. -K. C. L.
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________________ Books On Jainology BROWN, W. N., The Story of Kalaka (Freer Gallery of Art Oriental Studies No. 1), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1933. Pages vii+149. 15 Plates. Contains Kalaka story as legend and history, miniature painting in Western India, recensions of the Kalakacaryakatha, anonymous version-edition and translation, Hayapadiniya Payavo versionedition and translation, version of Bhavadeva Suri, Dharmaprabha Suri edition, Sriviravakyanumatam version-edition, version of Bhadresvara's Kathavali-edition and analysis, lexical notes, illustrations with index. BROWN, W. N., Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of Miniature Paintings of the Jaina Kalpa Sutra (Freer Gallery of Art Oriental Studies No. 2), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1934. Pages iv+66. 54 Plates. Contains introduction, list of illustrations, description of illustrations and index. BHATTACARYA, B. C., The Jaina Iconography (The Punjab Oriental Series No. XXVI), Motilal Banarsidass, Lahore, 1939. Pages b+4+192+x. 26 Plates. Contains introduction, iconography of Tirthankaras, Yaksa and Yaksinis, Dikpalas, "Navagrahas, Srutadevis, Vidyadevis and miscellaneous Jaina divinities. Also deals with asanas and mudras. NABAB, SARABHAI M., Jaina Citrakalpadruma (Gujarati), Sarabhai Manilal Nabab, 1936. Pages 24+9+139+232. Price Rs. 25.00 Collection of representative Jaina Paintings from 11th to 20th century. Foreword by W. N. Brown. Introduction by Hiranand Shastri. Contains Lekhankala by Muni Punyavijaya, Pracin Citra-nu Kala by Rasiklal Parikh, Pascim Bharat-ni Madhyakalin Citrakala by Ravisankar M. Ravan, Gujrat-ni Jainasrit Citrakala ane teno Itihas by Sarabhai M. Nabab, and a few other articles. Gives description of the illustrations. RAO, S. K. RAMACHANDRA, Jainism in South India, (Oriental Research Trust Series 2), Oriental Research Trust, Madras, 1970. Pages ix+84+12+iv. Price Rs. 3.00. Describes the advent of Jainism in South India and the succession of early Jaina teachers. Gives the history of Jainism in
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________________ JULY, 1970 Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Andhradesa with an appendix on Gommata Colossus of Sravanabelgola. MOOKERJEE, SATKARI, The Jaina Philosophy of Non-Absolutism (Bharati Mahavidyalaya Publications Jaina Series No. 2), The Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Calcutta, 1944. Pages xxi+323. Price Rs. 6.25. A critical study of anekantavada. SANGHVI SUKHLAL, Advanced Studies in Indian Logic and Meta physics, Indian Studies Past and Present, Calcutta, 1961. Pages vi+122. Price Rs. 12.50. English rendering of Sukhlalji's Introduction as well as the philosophical notes to the Pramana Mimansa of Acarya Hemacandra. Introduction is translated by Dr. Indukala Jhaveri and the notes by Krishna Kumar Dixit. Notes are selected and arranged in such a manner as could serve the purpose of an independent book on the Indian Philosophy. First 27 notes pertain to the problems of logic and the last 3 to those of metaphysics. Notes on logic are subdivided into 3 groups : (1) those dealing with the problems of knowledge in general, (2) those dealing with the problems of perception and (3) those dealing with the problems of inference.
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________________ Late Kasturmal Banthia The late Kasturmal Banthia, who died of heart failure on July 6, 1969, at the age of 75 was born at Ajmer and had his education at Allahabad and Bombay. Having taken his B.Com degree from the Sydenham College of Commerce, he served under some business houses at Indore and in 1920 he joined the Birlas. In 1928, the Birlas deputed him to serve their firm The East Indian Produce Co. Ltd., in London which he did for the next five years. Banthia was one of the earliest from Rajasthan to go overseas against social opinion and stay there with his family. In the London Indian circle Banthia soon made a mark and was made the vice-president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce there. On his return to India in early thirties, he lost his wife and this was a turning point in his career. He gave up his job and devoted to reading and writing which he had been doing these long years. He had a good collection of books which he made over to the Sri Jinadatta Suri Mandal, Ajmer. Banthia had a passion for writing, but much of it has been through the medium of Hindi. He wrote several books first on commercial subjects, later on Jainism. He contributed many articles in current journals but his preference was for translations. Himself a prolific writer, he translated many important books on Jainism from Guja and English into Hindi. Unfortunately, only a few of these are available in print, the largest portion of his labour still remains in manuscripts and unless printed soon by the enthusiasm of some religious organisation, trust or publishing firm, will be consumed up by the great consumer Kala (Time). Banthia had great admiration for this journal and when in 1969 its special issue was devoted to 'Jainism through Space and Time', he expressed a keenness to translate it in Hindi himself, would his health so permit. His was really a personality to be loved and admired and his exit leaves a gap which may be difficult to fill up.
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________________ JULY, 1970 We give below a list of works translated by the Late Kasturmal Banthia. As already said, these are unpublished yet, unless indicated and it will be a real appreciation and lasting memorial to him if something could be done to put them in print. 1. The Life of Hemacandracarya by G. Buhler (published in Choukhamba Series, Varanasi). 2. Studies in Jaina Art by U.P. Shah. 3. Jainism in Bihar by P. C. Raychoudhury. 4. Jainism in North India by C. J. Shah. 5. Exhaustive Introduction to Harisena's Vihat Kathakosa by A. N. Upadhye. 6. 'Political Condition of Magadha at the time of Nirvana of Buddha and Mahavira' by H. Jacobi. (Jacobi's article was published in Bharatiya Vidya, Vol. III, No. 1) 7. Jain Sahitya-no Samksipt Ithihas by Mohanlal Dalichand Desai. 8. Bhagawan Mahavir by Jayaviksu. 9. Mahamatya Vastupal-no Vidyamandal by Bhogilal Sandesara (published by Jain Sanskriti Samsodhak Mandal, Varanasi.) 10. Vair-no Vipak by Sushil (published by Jinadatta Suri Seva Sangh, Bombay). (Vair-no Vipak is based on Acarya Haribhadra Suri's Samaraiccakahasara). 11. Jage Tavi Savera (published by Sasta Sahitya Mandal, New Delhi). 12. Pap Punya aur Samyam (based on Antakstdasa, Anuttaropapa tikadasa and Vipaka Sutra). 13. Rayapaseniya Sutra by Pandit Bechardas Doshi. 14. Mahavir-na Das Upasako by Pandit Bechardas Doshi. 15. Vivecan of Siddhasena's Sanmatiprakarana by Pandit Sukhlal Sanghvi and Bechardas Doshi. 16. Hemacandracarya's Yogasastra by Gopaldas Jivabhai Patel. 17. Chayanuvad of Uttaradhyayana Sutra by Gopaldas Parekh. 18. Upamiti Bhava Prapanca Katha of Siddharsi. 19. Jain Distie Brahmacarya Vicar by Pandit Sukhlal Sanghvi and Bechardas Doshi. 20. Stories from Haribhadra Suri.
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________________ On Meditations For Kevala P. C. DAS GUPTA Since supreme knowledge is the aim of yearning souls from unknown antiquity even before the dawn of historical era the human civilisation has ever been inspired by the ideals of eternal beauty and fundamental laws of the all-pervading. The image of the essential truth and grace gave an indefinable value to the knowledge imparted in quest in spite of material progress. Though urban ideology of culture or rural economy flounced by community life and trade across distant lands enhanced attainments in co-ordination gradually elaborating the concepts of polity individuals sometime yearned to attain in the past a standard of knowledge illuminating the living and the inanimate in a sense of fulfilment preconditioned by final purity transcendental in acceptance and revelation. When in the perspective of the Bronze Age and related cultures kings, priests, poets and philosophers essayed to determine the truth of creation and the phenomena of the world and space apart from surveying new landscapes of beauty somewhere attempts were perhaps made to acquire knowledge to the fulfilment of final quest identifying as it appears the self with its everlasting light. In such a context Jainism has its significance not only for its speculation through sublime enquiry conditioned by syadvada, the system of probability, but also for its close analogy with some of the Post-Vedic ideals having as it is evident an unascertainable context along the way of Time. Inheriting the wealth of thoughts offered by the Tirthankaras from Risabhanatha in succession to Mahavira Jainism recognised the ultimate realisation by kevala, the 'perfect knowledge' attained among others by the principles of saptabhangi ('seven forms') and the understanding of the nature of pudgala aside the aspects jiva and ajiva, the latter including the forms and the formless. As it has been explained : "The whole universe is traced to the everlasting uncreated, independent categories of jiva and ajiva, the conscious and the unconscious. Animate beings are composed of soul and body. The souls are distinct from matter and are eternal. Non-consciousness (ajiva) are divided into two main classes, those without form (arupa) such as dharma (principle of motion), adharma (principle of rest), space, and time, and those with form (rupa) such as pudgala or matter. The Jainas believe in the atomic structure of the universe."1 1 A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, p. 251.
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________________ JULY, 1970 Since the Tirthankaras like Risabha, Ajitanatha and Aristanemi belong to a remote past being mentioned in the Yajur Vedait is obviously interesting to recall the life and time of Neminatha, the twentysecond Jina who was a cousin brother of Krisna and Baladeva. Besides, there are indications that the cult of the Jina faithfully aligned with the cession of Tirthankaras. Among other instances an affinity between a male torso from Harappa and a polished torso of a Tirthankara evidently standing in kayotsarga pose from Lohanipur in Bihar has appeared significant particularly in revealing the antiquity of the relevant system of meditation and acceptance of life and objects in accordance to the supreme knowledge of self or the gift of kevala. Aside this kind of affinity whose final explanations may come after further discoveries there is little doubt about the prolonged continuity of the tradition of Jaina thoughts like the unaccountable source of the distant cult of the earlier Buddhas. One has to believe that like Buddha Konakamana adored by Priyadarsi Asoka Parsvanatha was also a historical figure whose realisation illuminated the self in the everlasting light of knowledge. Beckoned by this ideology to recognise the self and, thereby the truth and reality of everything the adherents of Mahariva left a tradition whose origin goes back to the dawn of civilisation. As a study of iconography and traits of legends and philosophy especially laying stress on the liberation of self and on ahimsa will obviously reveal analogy with different systems of Hindu and Buddhist thoughts it is edifying to follow the annals of early Tirthankaras narrating the growth of a tradition within the geographical boundaries of India in cultural perspective. Here it will be interesting to recall that it was on the Mount Parsvanatha in eastern India where ? Ibid., p. 250.
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________________ 8 most of the Tirthankaras before Mahavira attained their nirvana, the liberation of soul. Among other instances Risabhanatha attained nirvana on Mount Kailasa, the twelfth Tirthankara Vasupujya was born in Campapuri and attained nirvana in the same place, and Neminatha the twentysecond Tirthankara attained his similar emancipation on Mount Girnar. Since in the annals of the Tirthankaras the Mount Parsvanatha is eminently sanctified like the Kailasa it is tempting to associate the origin of Jainism, one of the earliest religions of the world which stressed on knowledge and ahimsa amidst the highlands of Chotonagpur besides other regions covering holy terrains. Actually, the age of early Tirthankaras will to an extent correspond to the age of the protohistoric civilisation of Bengal and Bihar which flourished as far back as the 2nd millennium B.C. Further studies and investigations may throw a new light on the genesis of the religion vis-a-vis the phases of chalcolithic civilisation in the Indian sub-continent which had often contact with foreign lands. This tradition of thoughts, as it appears, emanated in an age of great antiquity being a moralising force of immense spiritual value which not only emphasised on ethics but also on the inner and external manifestation of knowledge. The organised system of Jainism envisaged the truth of kevala to be enshrined in self which will not bring one to the Paradise beyond mortality but to the supreme realisation of things under the purest light of perception. This perfect state conditioned by realisation, is believed can only reveal the entirety of soul and its relation with the pudgala in its limitless aspect. Even accepting the iconic and aniconic cults ranging from those of divinities to the worship or veneration to trees and symbols Jainism ever aimed at this ultimate knowledge beyond reality and atoms. While an unaccountable feeling has been conveyed by the ideals of sculpture envisaging either the height of dedication for liberation as reflected by the colossus of Gomatesvara or the fascinating lines and modulations of goddesses replete with feminine grace and members of dancing troupes as carved on marble at Dilwara on Mount Abu the ideology proclaimed the majesty of self and its perception beyond bondage. References: JAIN JOURNAL 1. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, edited by Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore, Princeton University Press, 1957. 2. P. Thomas, Epics, Myths and Legends of India. 3. Umakant P. Shah, Studies in Jaina Art, Varanasi, 1955.
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________________ PAUM A CARIU (from Vol. IV. No. 2) SVAYAMBHUDEVA AYODHYA KANDA Birth and marriage of Rama sunu akkhami rahuvamsu pahanau dasarahu atthi aujjhhe ranau tasu putta hosanti dhurandhara vasueva valaeva dhanuddhara tehi hanevau rakkhu maharane janaya narahiva tanayahe karane Such was the prediction : 'In the Raghu dynasty, there will be a king named Dasaratha at Ayodhya. His two sons Vasudeva and Valadeva will be great experts in archery. In a great battle they will kill Raksas on account of the daughter of king Janaka.' On learning this Vibhisana decided to kill both Dasaratha and Janaka so that the cause of future danger to Ravana's life wiped out. Narada warned both Dasaratha and Janaka of Vibhisana's design. They both left their respective palaces, substituting statues for themselves. The unsuspecting Vidyadharas removed the heads of the statues. Dasaratha and Janaka in their ramblings attended the svayamvara of Kaikayi, the daughter of the prince of Kautukamangala. Kaikayi chose Dasaratha as her husband. This enraged the other suitors who challenged Dasaratha and there was fighting in which Kaikayi rendered exceptional services to her husband. It was for this Dasaratha promised her two boons. She reserved them for some future use. Four sons were born to king Dasaratha, Rama by Aparajita, Laksmana by Sumitra, Bharata by Kaikayi and Satrughna by Suprabha. ramacandu aparajjiyahe somitti sumittihe ekku janu bharahu dhurandharu kekkaihe suppahahe puttu punu sattuhanu
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________________ 10 To Janaka of Mithila was born a son, Bhamandala, and a daughter Sita. The son was abducted by a revengeful god and abandoned. He was found by the Vidyadhara king Candragati who brought him up as his son. JAIN JOURNAL Now Mithila was in danger because of an attack by a barbarian people. Rama and Laksmana were invited to Mithila to fight against the invaders. Naturally Janaka was grateful for their services. He desired to offer Rama his daughter Sita in marriage. But trouble was created by eternal trouble-monger Narada. One day he frightened Sita by his sudden appearance in her palace and so was thrown out by her attendants. Smarting under this insult, he showed Sita's portrait to Bhamandala who at once felt attracted to her. To save his life Candragati had to lay a trap for bringing Janaka to him. But Janaka would not agree, since Sita was already betrothed. Atlast a compromise was arrived at according to which Janaka would give Sita to one who would be able to string two divine bows Vajravarta and Samudravarta. Accordingly the bows were removed to Mithila and a svayamvara was held. As destiny would have it, Rama and Laksmana could only string the bows. Sita was therefore, married to Rama. The other three brothers were also married on the same occasion. Frustrated Bhamandala decided to abduct Sita forcibly. He reached Vidagdhapura with his army and remembered his past birth as a rular of that place. He also got the vision of his real character as the kidnapped brother of Sita. Remorseful he came to Ayodhya and was introduced to Rama and others by monk Satyabhuti. Rama, Laksmana and Sita go into exile Once Dasaratha took to task the old chamberlain in his harem for negligence. The latter put forth disability due to old age. This filled Dasaratha's mind with thoughts of ephemeral nature of worldly pleasures. So he decided to crown Rama in his place and renounce the world. Now learning that Dasaratha was to crown Rama the next day, Kaikayi became jealous and asked the king to give the throne to her own son Bharata and thus to honour his promise to give her the boons. It was indeed very hard but there was no way out either. Kaikayi was
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________________ JULY, 1970 adamant. Rama readily agreed to hand over the kingdom to Bharata. To allay any apprehension in the mind of Dasaratha about a probable discord among the brothers, Rama accepted a voluntary exile to the forest. But Bharata was unwilling to accept the reins of the state. He was persuaded by his father who in any case was bent upon becoming a recluse. Rama himself placed the crown on his brother's head. Dasaratha was remorseful whem Rama and Laksmana took his leave to depart, but Aparajita's grief knew no bound when she heard of this new development. Pacifying her they moved forth. Sita also joined them. Laksmana offered his services to capture Bharata and conquer the throne but Rama dissuaded him by saying that they should honour father's word and spend sixteen years in the forest. Praying at a shrine they took the way to the forest. At daybreak, they were joined by the entire royal army which was eager to accompany them. Rama persuaded the army to return. Then they reached the bank of the formidable river Gambhira and crossed it. With the departure of Rama, Laksmana and Sita faded the glory of Ayodhya. The universal feeling was that their own kith and kin had departed. Laksmana's absence was particularly felt, As his worldly duties were done, Dasaratha went to a Jina shrine and courted the life of austerity and restraint. Bharata was now the most unhappy person on earth. He was crowned by Rama against his wish. But when he heard of Rama's exile, he fell from his throne. On recovery he consoled Aparajita and promised to bring back Rama and Laksmana. Bharata overtook Rama after six days. He made a pressing request to Rama to return but Rama would not agree, since that would be dishonouring his father's pledge. Thus failing to persuade Rama, Bharata took the vow to abdicate the throne when Rama would return and came back to Ayodhya. Rama, Laksmana and Sita moved further on. They reached Tapasavana where lived all sorts of ascetics. Then they passed through the forest settlements of hunters and herdsmen. They were now not very far from Citrakuta. When they reached the borders of the city of Dasapura, Laksmana caught sight of some one who had his head broken and who was flying in panic. He was caught and produced before Rama. The refugee thus narrated the episode : Vajrakarna, the king of Dasapura, is a vassal of the king Simhodara. Vajrakarna is under
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL a vow not to bow his head before any one except a Jina. This has enraged the Superlord and hence the deadly war. He is escaping from the field with injuries. The fellow was rewarded and let off. Rama, Laksmana and Sita entered Dasapura. They were duly received by the king who arranged a stately dinner in their honour. They were now allies of Vajrakarna. So Laksmana told Simhodara to come to a peaceful settlement with Vajrakarna and equally share his kingdom with him. This enraged Simhodara and in the encounter that followed Simhodara was defeated and taken a captive. The kingdom was divided between Vajrakarna and Simhodara. Laksmana agreed to marry three hundred girls offered by Vajrakarna and Simhodara when he would return after fixing up a suitable abode for Rama. Then they reached the city of Kuvara. It was spring and the Nature was full of splendour. Kalyanamala, the king of Kuvara, was indeed a princess in the guise of a man. When they arrived Kalyanamala was out to enjoy spring sports. Enamoured at the beauty of Laksmana, she offered to share the royal seat with him and narrated the woe of the kingdom. Actually Valikhilya, her father, was the king of this city but as he was kidnapped by Rudrabhuti, the king of Vindhyas, she was protecting the kingdom and looking after the affairs of the state disguised as a man. Laksmana promised to take revenge on the king of the Vindhyas. The party was duly entertained. They spent the night there and left at the early hours of the morn leaving behind a note for Kalyanamala. At this she was greatly disappointed. They proceeded towards Vindhyas and crossed the Narmada. It was a striking coincidence that king Rudrabhuti too had come there on a hunting expedition. When he saw Sita, he ordered his men to snatch her away. Before they could attack Laksmana stringed his bow and produced such a tremendous sound that they all fled. When the king came to know that the strangers were Baladeva and Vasudeva he at once fell at their feet. Valikhilya too was released. Resuming their journey further, they crossed the river Tapi and arrived at Arunagrama. Because of long journey, Sita had become sorely thirsty and so they entered into the house of a brahmin named Kapila and drank water. While they were resting a while, the brahmin came back and seeing unknown people in his house he lost his temper. Laksmana too got enraged. Apprehending a breach of peace Rama left the place at once and entered into a deep forest where they stopped under a banyan tree.
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________________ JULY, 1970 Now when they were there, it was about to rain very heavily. On seeing this, a yaksa, Putana by name, erected a city named Ramapuri by the strength of his magic power and dedicated it to Rama so that he along with his consort and brother would not be harrassed by the downpour. He also presented Rama jewels and ornaments. When Rama, Sita and Laksmana were living in the magic city, news reached the brahmin Kapila that the king of the new city fulfilled the wishes of anyone who bowed before a Jina. So Kapila became a Jaina covert and came before the king. But when he saw Laksmana there, he fled in panic. He was soon caught and brought before Rama. Rama fulfilled his heart's desire and bestowed enormous riches on him. Now, Rama and his party reached Jivantanagara. Mahidhara was the ruling monarch here. He had a daughter Vanamala by name. She was already betrothed to some prince. Meanwhile Bharata had sent a request to king Mahidhara to give his daughter to Laksmana when the latter arrived in his city. This had indeed created a difficult situation. Meanwhile, the princess had heard about Laksmana and she was keen to marry him and none else. But since that was not going to be, one day she secretly left the palace and was about to hang herself from a tree. The chance arrival of Laksmana, however, saved her. Laksmana brought his new acquisition to Rama. While they were thus talking, the guards who were let loose in search of the princess encountered her there in the company of strangers and surrounded them. Presently the king too arrived with his army ready for fight. When the king came to know who the strangers were, he was highly pleased and offered his daughter to Laksmana. Meanwhile a war was under preparation between Bharata and king Anantavirya of Nandavarta. Bharata had demanded the submission of the latter as his feudatory which he had refused. Since king Mahidhara was feudatory under the king Anantavirya, the latter had sent a request to him to join on his side in the war. Rama planned to capture Anantavirya by stratagem. With Laksmana and eight others he dressed himself like a court panegyrist (caranagayana-vesu-karebi) and went to the court of king Anantavirya to give a performance of dance and music. In the course of the performance they began to sing in praise of king Bharata. This enraged Anantavirya who took out his sword. But Rama gave him no time to strike. He jumped upon him and captured him. At the request of the queens Rama released him but demanded that he must submit to Bharata.
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL This was too great a humiliation. The king preferred to renounce the world and be a recluse. Bharata appeared on the spot and bowed before the new recluse. Rama and his party then returned to Jivantanagara. The party now came to Godavari and reached the city of Ksemanjali where reigned king Aridamana. He had a daughter named Jitapadma. Many suitors had come to seek her hand but failing to pass the test they all had lost their lives. A ghastly heap of their bones could be seen outside the city. Laksmana offered himself as a suitor and expressed his readiness to pass the test. This he successfully did. Five Saktis were hurled by king Aridamana which Laksmana easily caught and then he offered to hurl a counter-sakti. Apprehending the outcome the princess intervened. The episode happily ended in Laksmana getting the princess as his wife. The party proceeded farther south. Crossing a hill they reached the city of Vamsasthala which was now in turmoil. The king and his subjects were all fleeing. For the city had been attacked by a horde of demons because of which there were roars, cyclones, showers and quakeshocks. The only quiet people were the monks who bore all tortures and remained steadfast in their meditation. Rama and Laksmana dispersed the demons and thus saved the monks. Immediately, thereafter these attained kevalajnana. Indra descended to celebrate the occasion and gave sermon on the fruits of religious life. bhanai purandaru aho aho loyaho jai sankiya jara-marana-bioyaho jai nivvinna cau-gai gamanaho to ki na dhukkaho jinavara-bhavaanaho puttu kalattu jaba mane cintaho jinavara-vimvu tava ki no cintaho To be Continued
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________________ An Introduction To Jaina Logicians and Their Logic PUSHPA BOTHRA Jaina logic began from Siddhasena, who was the first great logician among the Jainas. But to some extent logical discussions are also to be found in the Agamic literature like Bhagavati Sutra, Sthananga, Samavayanga and Anuyoga and some works on logic had been written between the Agamic age and the time of Siddhasena. The chief logicians of this period were Acarya Kundakunda and Umasvati. Kundakunda is supposed to belong to the first or second century A.D. He was the first amongst the Jainas to discuss the Agamic themes in a logical manner. He not only expounded them on the basis of the Agamas but also discussed the problems in the light of contemporary thoughts. Though Kundakunda did not discuss the problems of pramana, yet his epistemology was influenced by the concept of pramana. He explained pratyaksa and paroksa on the basis of the Agamas. He pointed out that sense-knowledge could not be regarded as pratyaksa; it was paroksa. Pratyaksa was that knowledge which arose in the self directly without the help of the sense organs. He was also the first to have discussed the problem of knowledge. He raised the question, whether knowledge was self-revealing or object-revealing (svaprakasa or paraprakasa) and established that knowledge was both self-revealing and object-revealing, just as a lamp revealed itself as well as the object. Later on, all the Jaina scholars accepted this view of knowledge. Kundakunda explained the anekantavada of the Agamas in a systematic and clear way. Although he mentioned only the two nayas niscaya and vyavahara, yet he tried to solve all difficult philosophical problems with the help of these two. The main works of Kundakunda are: Pancastikaya, Pravacanasara, Samayasara, Niyamasara, Astapahuda, Dasabhakt i, Sadagamatika, etc.
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL Umasvati was the first amongst the Jainas to use the Sanskrit language. Before him Jaina literature was written in Prakrit. Tattvartha Sutra is Umasvati's main work. The subject matter of Tattvartha Sutra is based on the Agamas but it is written in a systematic way. There is wide discussion on the nature, qualities and types of dravya (substance). Though there is not much discussion on prameya, pramana and naya, yet Umasvati to some extent did define these concepts. The five types of knowledge of the Agamas are according to him pramana. He also classified pramana into pratyaksa and paroksa. Pratyaksa meant for him the immediate knowledge which arose in the self directly without the help of the sense organs and paroksa was defined as knowledge derived from the sense organs. He also described naya in a different way from that of the Agamas. It may be said that though Jaina logic was not fully developed at the time of Kundakunda and Umasvati yet their writings exercised great influence on the development of Jaina logic. After Kundakunda and Umasvati the period of Jaina logic began. As mentioned before, Siddhasena was the first great logician. We cannot also forget the name of Samantabhadra in this connection (5th tury A.D.) Samantabhadra and Siddhasena may be called the founders of Jaina logic. Aptamimansa is the main work of Samantabhadra in which he introduced a new style to discuss the philosophical problems on the basis of anekantavada. He also gave a definition of pramana in his Svayambhu Stotra, which may be viewed as the first logical type of definition of pramana amongst the Jainas. (svaparavabhasakam yatha pramanam bhuvi buddhilaksanam). Siddhasena belonged to the seventh century A.D. The main works of Siddhasena are Sanmatitarka and Nyayavatara. Sanmatitarka is written in Prakrit, in which he discussed the nayas, in a comprehensive manner on the basis of anekantavada. Nyayavatara has been called the foundation-stone of Jaina logic. In this work, he defined the pramana not only on the basis of the Agamic view but also according to his own independent thought and criticism of contemporary ideas on this matter. He classified pratyaksa into two types, the sensuous and the non-sensuous : and paroksa was also classified into two types : anumana and agama. This classification was influenced by the classification given by other schools of philosophy. Siddhasena was also the first Jaina logician who defined the four logical terms pramana, pramata, prameya and pramiti. Samantabhadra and Siddhasena have done some preliminary work in the field of Jaina logic but in the meantime logic in other schools
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________________ JULY, 1970 of philosophy had been developed more fully. There were great Buddhist logicians like Dignaga and Dharmakirti. But amongst the Jainas there was no work comparable to Pramanasamuccaya and Nayabindu. 17 Akalanka filled in this gap about the eighth century A.D. He was the first to expound the Agamic theory of pramana in a pure logical way. According to the Jaina Agamas, pramana is of two types: pratyaksa and paroksa. Pratyaksa is the knowledge which arises immediately in the self without the help of sense organs. 'Aksa' means the self and knowledge derived from the self directly is called pratyaksa. Paroksa is the knowledge which is not direct to the self but is derived with the help of the sense organs. Pratyaksa is of three types, avadhi, manahparyaya and kevala. Paroksa is of two types, mati and sruta. While all the systems of Indian philosophy accept as pratyaksa all sensuous knowledge derived from the sense organs, according to the Jaina Agamas, sensuous knowledge is not pratyaksa. Akalanka was faced with the problem, whether to accept the Agamic view of pratyaksa. or the contemporary theories of it. At first he defined pratyaksa simply as clear knowledge (visadam pratyaksam), then he classified it into two types, the samvyavaharika pratyaksa and mukhya pratyaksa. Knowledge derived from the sense organs was called samvyavaharika pratyaksa and knowledge which arises directly in the self was called mukhya pratyaksa. Akalanka not only classified pratyaksa, he also gave logical definitions of each kind of pratyaksa. And on the basis of his definition of pratyaksa he examined and criticised the definitions of pratyaksa given by the other systems. Knowledge which was not visada was paroksa or indirect, according to him. He classified paroksa into the following types: smrrti, pratyabhijna, tarka, anumana and agama, all these being indirect knowledge. Akalanka also explained the object (visaya) and the result (phala) of pramana in a comprehensive and logical manner. He examined and discussed all logical problems and established some new facts in the field of logic. Laghiastraya, Nyayaviniscaya, Pramanasangraha and Siddhiviniscaya were his great works. He wrote commentaries on the Tattvartha Sutra of Umasvati and Aptamimansa of Samantabhadra which are known as Tattvarthavartika and Astasati respectively. Vidyananda was a great commentator on Akalanka. His commentary on Akalanka's Astasati, known as Astasahasri, is a valuable work in philosophy. Vidyananda studied thoroughly all systems of philosophy. He was specially a great scholar of Mimansa school of
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________________ 18 Kumarila. He wrote Tattvarthaslokavartika, (a commentary) Umasvati's Tattvartha Sutra. In his own work Pramanapariksa, he examined all the different views of pramana. In Aptapariksa he rejected Kumarila's views and established the Jaina view regarding the possibility of omniscient being. Vidyananda is supposed to belong to the 9th century A.D. JAIN JOURNAL Manikyanandi's Pariksamukha was the first sutra grantha in logic amongst the Jainas. It cotained the following six chapters: pramana, pratyaksa, paroksa, visaya, phala, and tadabhasa. In this the author discussed the logical problems in sutra style. He examined other systems and by rejecting them established the Jaina views on logical grounds. on Prabhacandra was a follower of Manikyanandi. His commentary on Manikyanandi's Pariksamukha is famous by the name of Prameyakamalamartanda. Nyayakumudacandra is also a large commentary on Akalanka's Laghiyastraya. Prabhacandra was a great logician and acquired an important place in the whole of Indian logic and philosophy. In both the above commentaries he discussed the innumerable problems of logic and philosophy and by rejecting them he established the Jaina views. Prabhacandra belonged to the 13th century. Abhayadeva Suri was also a great commentator. He was the author of a commentary on Samantabhadra's Sanmatitarka, in which he discussed the theories of different schools of philosophy. Syadvadaratnakara is a large commentary on Pramananayatattvalokalankara. Both these works were written by Vadideva Suri. These were written in the style of Prameyakamalamartanda and Nyayakumudacandra, and the subject matter also was the same as that of those books. But there are also some discussions on naya and vada which are not to be found in the Prameyakamalamartanda and Nyayakumudacandra. Vadideva Suri also discussed and criticised the theories of the other systems. He belonged to the 12th century A.D. Vadiraja was also a great commentator. He wrote a big commentary on Akalanka's Nyayaviniscaya by the name of Nyayavinscayavivarana. There are three prastavas in it namely, pratyaksa, anumana and pravacana. He explained Akalanka's views very thoroughly. Pramanamimansa of Hemacandra (12th Century A.D.) has its own importance in Jaina logic. He also wrote on Prakrit grammar and
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________________ JULY, 1970 on various other subjects. Hemacandra was a great scholar of philosophy, logic, grammar and literature. His philosophy and logic were influenced by Akalanka. Though his work was based on the previous Jaina literature yet in many places he established his own views. Yasovijaya of the 18th century was the last great Jaina logician. He studied navyanyaya and gave a new style to the Jaina logic. His main works are on naya and anekantavada. These are : Nayapradipa, Nayarahasya Nayopadesa, Jainatarkabhasa and Jnanabindu. There are some other Jaina logicians of different times. They were Mallavadi, Sumati, Kumarasena, Kumaranandi, Anantavirya 1, Anantavirya II and Anantakirti. They have their own important place in the development of Jaina logic.
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________________ Nihnavas (Doubts in Jaina Texts) BASISTHA NARAYAN SINHA The word nihnavas, which is a combination of the root hnu with a prefix ni and suffix ap may stand for concealment (gopana), denial (asviksti), disbelief (avisvasa), doubt (sandeha), etc. In Jaina texts, the word has mostly been used to signify a doubt raised by a disciple or a follower against some aspect of an original tenet as established by his leader or teacher and only very sparingly it has been used to singify the doubter himself. In the former sense, we find seven kinds of ninhavas mentioned in the Sthanarga Sutra as follows : bahurata jivapradesika, avyaktadrsti, samuccheda, dvikriya, trairasika and abaddhika. 1. Bahurata--This doubt was raised fourteen years after Mahavira's enlightenment by one of his disciples, Jamali, who found that almost nothing could be done in a moment and that most things needed more than a moment to be completed. So one should not say that has been done or completed till it was really so. The thing which is in the process of being done, is not actually done till the process has received its final touch. On this basis, Jamali refuted the philosophical principles propounded by Lord Mahavira, viz., that a thing in the process of being done should be considered as already done. This confusion has been discussed at length in the Bhagavati Sutrai and in the end it has been conceded that the theory propounded by Mahavira is based on the niscaya naya while the doubt raised by Jamali stands on the vyavahara nava. As per niscava naya, a thing is considered to be actually finished as soon as it is planned, decided and taken on hand though not yet brought to its completion, while vyavahara naya does not consider a thing to be completed till it is really finished. 2. Jivapradesika-Jivapradesika is the doubt raised by Tisyagupta, one of the disciples of Acarya Vasu 16 years after Mahavira's enlightenment. As Tisyagupta declared, only the last portion or element of the body should be named as jiva because it completed the whole body which was the dwelling place of a jiva. According to the original theory, all parts of a body had the same importance because in the absence of any of them, the body remained incomplete. Acarya Vasu tried his best to 1 Dr. Hiralal Jain, Bharatiya Samskrti-me Jain Dharam-ka Yogdan, p. 30. Bhairudan Sethia, Bol-samgraha, Part II, p. 342, Bol 561. Bhagavati Sutra, Sataka 1, Uddesaka 1, Sutra 7.
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________________ JULY, 1970 21 satisfy his pupil by clarifying the original theory but all in vain. As a result, Tisyagupta was boycotted by his fellow disciples and he organised a new group. With his new followers he visited different places and once in the course of his wanderings, he happened to meet a sarvaka (house-holder) who invited him to have his lunch with him. But at the time of taking meal, the sravaka offered him only a little of the things prepared and he cited his (Tisyagupta's ) own theory when the latter inquried about this peculiar mode of offering food to a guest. Then he reasoned that the last portion or a particular portion of a body could not be the jiva in the same manner as a little quantity of food could not be the whole meal. This reasoning removed the doubt raised by Tisyagupta and he returned to his previous teacher. 3. Avyaktadssti-The third nihnava known as ayyaktadisti was put forth by Asadharacarya 214 years after Mahavira's nirvana. Once after instructing his pupils and other Jaina ascetics Asadharacarya (a deity in the guise of a Jaina muni) apologized : "O Munis, excuse me for the fault I have committed by accepting your prayers and services offered to me, because I am an unrestrained deity and you are the restrained ascetics.' This created a problem for the Jaina munis-how to differentiate between a restrained person and an unrestrained one ; and they gave up all respect and sumbissiveness to the elders. They began to doubt all personalities. They even lost their confidence in the sastras. They began to doubt the purity of food offered by house-holders because they were unable to answer to the question-how to know that a particular meal was pure or impure. In this way the whole atmosphere became vitiated with doubts. At last the news reached the king Balabhadra who ordered that all the doubters should be killed. Then to save themselves the munis said, 'Oh King, we are munis and munis should not be killed.' The king replied, 'How do you know that you are munis ? How am I to believe your words as you have affirmed the theory of disbelief and doubt?' This compelled them to give up their doubts. This also compelled them to believe in the sastras, because they could not prove themselves to be munis without reference to the sastras. So this theory of doubt was discarded.
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________________ 22 4. Samuccheda-Asvamitra, the disciple of Kaundinya, while going through the chapter entited Naipunika of the Purva Anupravada, 220 years after Mahavira's liberation, became convinced of the theory of momentariness: Nothing exists for more than a moment. His teacher tried to make him understand that his thesis was not in conformity with the Jaina theory. But he did not pay respect to his teacher's words. He organised his own followers and then they began to roam from place to place. On their way they were badly beaten by some house-holders when they were discovered as non-conformists. Asvamitra tried to save himself and his men by saying: 'Do not beat us, we are monks and you are house-holders.' The house-holders replied: "You are not monks, because those who had accepted monkhood are now no more; they passed away after a moment. You are imposters.' This wiped out their confusion and they returned to their teacher. Everything is permanent so far as its substance is concerned and momentary so far as its modes are concerned. JAIN JOURNAL 5. Dvikriya-Once a monk named Aryaganga was crossing a river, in order to meet his teacher. At that time the scorching rays of the sun gave him a feeling of heat, while the cold water of that river supplied coldness to his feet. From this he concluded: One can experience two types of sensations at a time. It is contradictory to Mahavira's teaching : Only one sensation can be experienced at a time. Aryaganga now began to preach his own theory on contradictions to replace the original one. While he was delivering his lecture at Rajagriha, people shouted him down and threatened to kill him if he stuck to his quaint view. This awakened some reasoning in him and he reverted to the original theory. Two kinds of sensations are experienced not simultaneously but alternately but due to subtleness of time and instability of mind it seems that these are experienced at a time. But really that is not so. 6. Trairasika-This doubt was raised 544 years after Mahavira's enlightenment by Rohagupta, the pupil of Srigupta, who was residing in Bhutagriha, far from the town named Antarangika. Rohagupta while residing with a Bauddha biksu (paribrajaka) accepted the existence of three rasis--jiva, ajiva and nirjiva as against the original two rasis-- jiva and ajiva as preached by Mahavira. Srigupta tried to convince Rohagupta as to the correctness of Mahavira's preaching but to no avail. At last the king Balasin asked Rohagupta to present an example of nirjiva but he failed to do. Thus defeated he had to accept the two rasis--jiva and ajiva-as preached by Mahavira. 7. Abaddhika-This doubt was raised by Gostamahila when Duravalika Puspamitra, a disciple of Aryaraksita, was delivering a lec
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________________ JULY, 1970 23 ture on the eighth Purva named Karmapravada. According to Gostamahila, a jiva, when it is supposed to be related with the karmas, as fire with iron or as water with milk, cannot separate itself from them and consequently it cannot attain liberation. So, according to him, a better simile would be that of a snake,--as a snake is related with its slough, so jiva is related with its karma. A snake casts off its slough and becomes free ; similarly a jiva can be free by casting off its karma. Moreover, Gostamahila also refuted the theory of pratyakhyana and declared that pratyakhyana should never be practised under the limitation of a certain period. His teacher tried to convince him by quoting from the texts that a jiva is related with the karmas as milk is with water or iron with fire and pratyakhyana must be practised under the limitation of certain period but Gostamahila never agreed and as a result of his opposition he became isolated and died of a broken heart, even without practising alocana and pratikramana. Besides the above seven nihnavas, one more nihoava has been added by the Commentaries on the Avasyaka Sutra, entitled Haribhadriyavasyaka and Visesavasyaka, which has been called Votika. It is as follows: 8. Votika--This doubt was raised by Sivabhuti. According to him, one cannot obtain liberation till he is not free from all sorts of attachment (parigraha). One, who wants to get rid of the worldly bondage, should leave even his clothings because these are also the cause of parigraha. A monk must be acela, i.e., without any sort of dress ; otherwise he cannot achieve his goal. This theory makes no provision for women's liberation. It is held by the Svetambaras. That the Digambaras whose creed is not dissimilar must have appeared at a later period as the followers of the votika nihnaya.
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________________ Two Unique Inscribed Jaina Sculptures SUDHIN DE The present paper describes two inscribed Jaina images', one of stone (circa 11th century A.D.) found at Pakbira in Purulia district and the other of bronze (circa 16th century A.D.) found at Sagardighi in Murshidabad district. Both these images are on display at the State Archaeological Gallery, West Bengal. The stone image is that of the sixteenth Tirthankara, Santinatha, standing in kayotsarga (self-giving) mudra on a double-petalled lotus, placed on a saptaratha pedestal bordered by two bands in relief. The central projection of the pedestal bears the lanchana mark, an antelope. The pedestal is embellished by two lions, carved out at the two extremes, the whole body of these two animal figures covering the projected and recessed part of the pedestal. Among the miniature figures from the left to the right, a goat-headed male figure is identified as Naigamesin, who as a guardian deity of children referred in the Jaina and Brahmanical mythology is said to have a position of significance. Besides four sitting female figures in anjali mudra are represented, three of them in a profile and the fourth one facing the front. At the bottom of the 1 The decipherment and translation of the inscriptions are by Dr. S. C. Mukherjee, Superintendent, Directorate of Archaeology, West Bengal.
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________________ JULY, 1970 pedestal, at the left is a kalasa and at the right a Saiva emblem or a phallus representation-a most interesting feature to note. 25 The top portion of the central projection of the pedestal bears an inscription which reads as follows : Sri srava rja (rga) pu(pa?) nya singhena rdattam (dattam) cakre. (This image has been dedicated by Sri Punya Singha, the Sravaka2.) The portion from the bottom of the pedestal upto the knee of the principal deity is in tact but the rest of the sculpture is broken. Squatting elephants are fashioned verically on the side. Of the navagrahas, (nine planets) only the last one viz., Ketu is visible in the sculpture. Though more than half of this sculputre is thus badly damaged, still it attracts our attention for what still remains of its fine workmanship. It is corroded much but that has not totally erased its sauve form and pulsating rhythm and its life-like presentation. The bronze image is that of the twelfth Tirthankara, Vasupujya, sitting in a dhyana mudra on a lotus seat supported by two lions placed on the front projection of triratha pedestal. The central projection of the pedestal shows a buffalo, the Tirthankara's lanchana and at the two extreme corners there are two seated figures. Srivatsa symbol is on the chest of the idol. The whole image is so designed that the Jina is seen sitting within a shrine surmounted by a caityavrksa supported by two elephants at the extremes. A makara-torana comes in slight relief and four figures of Tirthankaras two of whom are seated in a dhyana mudra and the other two standing in kayotsarga accompanied by two courtbearers. Two Jina figures seated each on a single petalled lotus are placed at both ends of the second storey which is supported by four ogee arches. The stele is semi-circular in form with a beaded border. The halo is also in the form of a semi-circle and is designed in lotus with seven extended petals. 2 The word srava rja (rga) denotes a tribal people who still live in considerable numbers in the western districts of Bengal. They are known as Srak or Sarak. The word Srak or Sravaka must have originated from the Sanskrit word sravaka meaning a house-holder following the path of the Jinas. An analogous title widely in use is 'Saraogi'. In 1891, Risley published a book entitled Tribes and Castes of Bengal, wherein he referred to the Sraks or Saraks. Although their ancestors were full Jainas, these people, who are for all practical purposes Hindus now, worshipping Hindu deities still prefix their invocation by the incantation 'ahimsa paramo dharma', are vegetarians in food habits and believe and practise non-violence.
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________________ 26 JAIN JOURNAL On the backside of the stele is the inscription which gives the date and the donor's name. samvat 1558 varsa magha sudi 12 garau okesa jnatiya bharada suta mehabharya padamai sreyase bhanasalipatakena sri vasupujyabimbam karitam pratisthitam kharataragacche sri jina hamsa suribhih. (On Thursday, the twelfth day of the bright half of Magha in 1558 samvat (1500-01 A.D.) Padamai, the wife of Meha, who was the son of Bharada of the Okesa clan, made the image of Sri Vasupujya for the well-being of Bhanasalipataka (Bhanasalipataka ?) and had it installed by Sri Jinahamsa Suri and others of the Kharatara Gaccha.) Though much corroded, it is a unique specimen of mediaeval bronze as found in Bengal and delineates the finer treatment in details in a balanced expression. Even the spiritual aspect does never fail in a selfcontrolled static disposition expressed in dhyana mudra. By Courtesy of the Directorate of Archaeology, West Bengal.
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________________ ****** TIRTHANKARA VASUPUJYA Sagardighi, Murshidabad, Circa 16th Century A.D. Courtesy Directorate of Archaeology, W.B.
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________________ THE MISERY --its what, why and how (from Vol. IV. No. 2) PRADYUMNA KUMAR JAIN On The Salvation (Moksa) The What To be free from the shackles of karma is salvation.58 It is the perfection of soul in itself, a self-restored state of the real, an autodynamic actuality of the essential nature of the soul. There is no more inertia attached with it. It is the supreme state ornamented with the dirtlessness, bodylessness, un-approachability by senses, perfections, purity, supreme greatness, supreme accomplishment, supreme benefaction, ineffability, siddha-hood, etc., etc.59 In, short, it is devoid of six types of defects (dosa).60 Psychologically speaking salvation is the end of spiritual development, which is the supreme state of experience ; while logically, it is the complete deduction of the self-consciousness from the premises of selftranscendence (major) and particular categories of the mind (minor). It is a practical conclusion assimilating the essence and negating the modes of both the premises. Thus essentially it is something very real, whereas beyond the mental categories it is a complete nihil exposing nothing. It is, therefore, something and nothing both together. Since the term moksa is relative, for it is whole of itself qua nothing of what has been annihilated before. Hence from the viewpoint of its own self it is an ocean of infinitude subsuming in itself the infinity of knowledge, intuition, bliss and power, and what not. From the viewpoint of the 'other' it is a symbol of the total blankness, total non-existence and totally nothing, for the identity of the soul with the 'other' has shattered away and the karman has vanished. In the state of the 68 69 60 G.S. (Jiva Kanda), 62 to 65. A. Kh. to 290, p.410. M. Pd., 6.
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________________ 28 karman the self is conceptualized in material terms. So with the cessation of karman material terms do also cease, and the reality of the self goes far beyond. Therefore, in the fourth fold of syadvada it is indescribable.61 The Why The cause of salvation is twofold. From the real point of view the soul itself is the cause of its own salvation;62 whereas from practical point of view the check (samvara) and the annihilation (nirjara) of karmas are the cause.63 Realistically, every real is unfolding itself perpetually and is actualizing its perfection, which is already resting within itself potentially. In as-much as such a self-actualization increases, the veiling agency, to the same extent, decreases. This increment and decreasement are concurrent. In reality, each of the factors though increases and decreases respectively and independently,-as it is the nature of every real in absolute sense yet practically, keeping in view the relative function of mundane life, the elevation of self-actualization is vested in the detachment of the soul from the 'other'.64 It is therefore, that from different angles of vision, the salvation or nirvana is eternal, which is never caused by anything else. It bases all, while itself is based upon by none. Through it every thing is known, and it is known by By virtue of it every category is existent, and it is existent of its own accord. It is the ultimate cause of the whole mundane creation. While on the other side the salvation is one of the categories, and is a bye-product of constant spiritual discipline. It causes none, but is caused by other categories. Its existence is a mere hypothesis on the strength of the real existence of suffering and other categories. In this way, non-absolutely the reality of salvation may be viewed from different angles of vision. none. By viewing it through various relativities it should not be contended that the salvation is a hotch-potch bundle of relative tit-bits, but is a system comprising identity-in-difference. There is the identity of substance and the varieties of modes, which are, in reality, one and non-separable. Here identity of the substance consists in the perpetual being of qualities expressing themselves through self-generated modes. Thus existentially, qualities and modes are identical and form dynamic existence of the substance. So the substance is an integral unity of 61 S. S., 6. 62 Ibid., 83; A. Kh. K. Kavya, 191. 63 S. s., 30; T. S., 10-2. A. Kh. K. Kavya, 136. JAIN JOURNAL 64
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________________ JULY, 1970 modal varieties, 65 and there is no question of its being hotch-potch in any way. The How Now the question is : as to how does the process of salvation start ? Kunda Kunda emphatically replies, that it is effected through reason (prajna).66 Reason is the most native attribute of the soul, which is divinely begotten to the human being through the automatic nirjara of knowledge and intuition-obscuring karmas (jnanavaraniya and darsanavaraniya). It is through it, that one clearly judges and perceives the natural perspective of the real, and thence through right conduct the salvation results.67 The salvation is, therefore, a state of soul's purest conduct accompanied by the perfect knowledge and intuition, bliss and power. It is the attainment of paramatman through the mediacy of antaratman renouncing the totality of inconsistent dehatman.68 These are the three poises of spiritual progression, through which the self-realization augments. The dehatman is the mode of self-experiencing self on the sensual level, while the antaratman on the mental level and the paramatman on the level of spirit.69 The first level is material-spiritual, for it pertains to the gross body and neural-experiences and animal passions subjugating the reason (prajna) far underneath. In the second level the process is reversed as spiritual-material, for here the reason comes over the sensuality of self-experience. But in the last resort when the reason succeeds fully, the whole of the self-experiencingness turns to be spiritual-spiritual. It is the last stage of the spiritual progress of siddhahood, which is a final death from the side of sensual and mental levels. It is the gradual progression from the region of diversity towards the unity of the self, thus realizing the purest thought-activities of the being. This purest state of the soul is termed in Jaina philosophy as complete annihilative knowledge (ksayika-jnana) relatively, and perfect knowledge (kevala-jnana) absolutely. Both of the above terms refer to the same position, but differ in their respective contexts. The former refers to the context of the karmas, that have fully been annihilated so far. In this way, from the angle of karman the jnana reaches the point of infinity, while karman itself on zero, and an equation is derived as ". But 65. Panc., 2-220. 66 Ssr., 294. 67 Ibid., 290. 68 M. Pd., 7, S. S., 4. * S. s., 5.
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________________ JAIN JOURNAL taking in view the standpoint of the self itself even the reference of zero goes astray, and the self becomes all in all, independent and pure. It enjoys then the bliss of kevala-jnana. Here the kevala-jnana should not be taken as total unfoldment of jnana attribute only leaving other ones aside. It rather symbolizes the unfoldment of all the other attributes. But the jnana assumes the prominance, for the reasons, that it is conceptual and shaped (sakara),70 while other attributes are non-conceptual and unshaped (nirakara). All the non-conceptual attributes can be grasped only through conceptualization i.e. jnana. Without jnana no attribute can be described and understood. Therefore, wherever the understanding of any attribute occurs, jnana-attribute comes in light, for understanding'as such is the function of jnana. Hence to know the perfection of soul otherwise, the perfection of jnana is but necessary ; or, in other words, the kevalajnana is the fore-most condition of the perfected soul. It is because of this, that the kevala-jnana implies kevala-darsana, ananta-sukha and ananta-virya. Its denotation is much wider. This liberated state is, however, reached at the thirteenth and fourteenth stages of spiritual progression (gunasthanas). The kevala-jnana at the thirteenth stage is another name of the embodied-god (jivanmukta), when all the obscuring karmas get annihilated and only some sort of hurt-less karmas prevail, due to which some desire-less movementsinternal and external, take place.71 This is the stage, when the soul attains Tirthankara-hood--though not necessarily--and sets the wheel of religion roll on. It is, in other words, called as spiritual salvation (bhava moksa). After this, at the fourteenth stage, these all foreign, though formal activities cease and the soul attains material salvation (dravya moksa) also, leaving this mundane world for the highest abode of the universe.72 At this stage the fullest integration of the universal and the particular, of divine descent and individual ascent takes place, and the kevalajnana represents the integral whole of spiritual awake. It is the point 70 Raja Mall explains the word akara as concrete conceptualization (artha-vikalpa), for, artha means the concrete things--self or non-self, and vikalpa a mode of upayoga. Thus akara means jnana. (2-391). Certain mode or form of jnana always accompanies with the other nirakara attributes of the soul ; just as, the sraddhana attribute though points out to the nirakara darsana, yet in itself it is a mode of jnana. (2-386,387). Jnana has, therefore, a superior position in the orbit of soul. Nsr., 171 to 174. Ibid., 175. 72
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________________ JULY, 1970 31 where two infinities conjoin, universal-qua-non-conceptual darsana on one side and particular-qua-conceptual jnana on the other.73 The unity in this concept of kevala-jnana has its unique position. It is not something to be generated from the diversity, but is the most fundamental, substantial in its own self. On one side of it there is the unity of transcendence and, on the other, the diversity of immanence. Transcendence and immanence are, therefore, well-integrated. We find such an expression of the kevala-jnana very near to the Super-Mind of Sri Aurobindo. The Super-Mind, according to Sri Aurobindo, is one of the poises of a self-same reality, that resembles the mind, on one hand, and the pure consciousness on the other. It inherits the character of both the poises, yet stands unique in an original form. "But in SuperMind", says Sri Aurobindo, "all being is consciousness, all consciousness is of being, and the idea, a pregnant vibration of consciousness, is equally a vibration of being a pregnant of itself ; it is an initial coming out, in creative self-knowledge, of that which lay concentrated in uncreative self-awareness."74 The triple character of Saccidananda is distinguishably apparent in it, yet it is inseparably one in the vastness of pure consciousness. Thus the Super-Mind consists in oneness and manyness both. "For the Super-Mind is vast; it starts from unity, not division, it is primarily comprehensive differentiation is only its secondary act."75 This is the Super-Mind, the truth-consciousness, the real idea, which knows itself and all that it becomes."76 Taking these aspects of the Super-Mind in view it can very well be compared with the idea of kevala-jnana. For its reconciliation of unity and division resembles the one-ness of intuition and knowledge of kevala-jnana. Both adhere to the one-ness and the unity of the subsstance. Division in both the views, is a secondary though quite a real aspect. Moreover, both agree on the point of evolution of the consciousness, with a slight difference on the mode of the process of evolution. The Super-Mind and the kevala-jnana are the highest evolute in their respective views, which agree in their general character. Both have the clear vision of the substance and the modes. Both the Jaina and Sri Aurobindo profess the deliverance of the soul from the bondage of matter. Spirit and matter are logically opposite principles. In order to pursue the one it is necessary to get rid of the other. Hence to leave the prison of matter is a necessity for the 78 74 75 76 Ibid., 159. c.f. L. D., p. 153. c.f. Ibid., 155. c.f. Ibid., 152.
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________________ JAIN. JOURNAL self-realization of the spirit. Here a very minute difference occurs between the Jaina and the Vedantic view of Sri Aurobindo. The Jaina advocates the clear-cut duality of the spirit and the matter. Whereas Sri Aurobindo advocates non-duality essentially, though accepting duality in the form of two poles of evolution practically. Evolution, according to the Jaina view, takes place in the sphere of spirit through one's own efforts, with the simultaneous destruction of the opposite principle of the matter. The state of the kevala-jnana appears as a result of winning over the matter completely. According to Sri Aurobindo, material elements are not annihilated from the region of the spirit, but they are spiritualized and transformed into the sphere of Saccidananda. The Jaina disagrees with such type of explanation, holding the view, if the matter and the spirit are the opposite realities, one can never be the other. A thing consists in the is-ness of itself-qua-no-ness of the 'other'. Its beingness for a realist, denotes a clear distinction from the other. If both are held at-all to be one existentially, it is only at the cost of realism. Then the Aurobindian criticism of Sankara is futile, for his position is not much different from that of Sankara. If still he sticks to the position of a realist, the Jaina position is un-alterable. However, such a theoretical and academic difference has a little significance on the face of the practical aspect of self-realization. The main point which is admissible to both is the evolution in the character of spirit. Now, the Jaina is critical of the Samkhya as well as the AdvaitaVedanta, who advocate the reality of salvation attainable by means of the jnana only. He adds to it the process of right conduct fully pregnant with the power of will for the sake of attaining salvation.?? Right knowledge without right conduct supported by the actual will-power is a well-manured land without plough. Here Sri Aurobindo seems joining hands with the Jaina, when the former lays much stress on the concomitance of the knowledge with the power. These are the two steps of dynamic consciousness, as says Sri Aurobindo "......... if it were in its nature and vision in knowledge and not at-all dynamic power of knowledge, we would hope to attain by its contacts a beautific state of mental illumination, but not a greater light and power for the works of the world. But since the consciousness is creatrix of the world, it must not be only state of knowledge, but power of knowledge, and not only a will to light and vision, but a will to power and works."78 Thus knowledge cannot be comprehended with its entire connotation, until and unless it is associated with the active force of consciousness. 77 A. Kh. to 290 to 292. 78 c.f. L. D., p. 145.
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________________ LE. E.Y., 1970 Illumination is always friendly with the force. Thus consciousness here bifurcates into knowledge and will. Both are its constituents. The term Saccidananda, in this way, connotes the existence by sat, the consciousness by cit, in which the knowledge, the intuition and the force are subsumed, and the bliss by ananda. This connotation of the term fully corroborates with the Jaina quarternary of infinite potentialities (ananta catustaya) of the kevala-jnana i.e. infinite knowledge, intuition, power, which are absorbed in the wide connotation of the term consciousness (cit) used by Sri Aurobindo in the term Saccidananda, and infinite bliss, that has been included equally in both the expressions. These four infinite potentialities characterize the being of kevala-jnana as a concrete reality.79 Thence the reality of kevala-jnana implies the concrete existence (satta), which corroborates with the first constituent of Saccidananda, i.e. Sat. We, nevertheless, find that the Saccidananda descended at the level of Super-Mind, as conceived by Sri Aurobindo is a term fully identical with the kevala-jnana of Jainism. Now comparing the concept of kevala-jnana with that of the nirrana of Buddhism, we find a little difference between the two. The mirvana according to Buddhism, consists in the total extinction of pain caused by passions, aversions, etc., denying every sort of mental category herein. "Whatever, your reverence ! is the extinction of passions, of aversions, of confusion, this is called nirvana." (Samyukta Nikaya, LY, 251, Horner's trans.)80 Thus Buddhism emphasizes upon the reality of metaphysical unity in nirvana duly separated from the body. Again in the words of the Buddha; "A released person, ... released from what is called body, ... is profound, immeasurable, hard to fathom, and like the great ocean." (Early Buddhist Scriptures, p. 196):81 In this way the Buddha solved the problem of pain by describing the non-description of the real in the state of nirvana through negative predications of the intellect. On account of this negativity of expression a charge of being a nihilist has been brought against the Buddha, for which he retorts, "... some ascetics and Brahmins accuse me wrongly baselessly, falsely and groundlessly, saying that ascetic Gotama is a nihilist, and preaches the annihilation, destruction and non-existence of an existent being. That is what I am not and I do not affirm. Both previously and now I preach pain and the cessation of pain." (Majjhima Nikaya, 1-135. Thomas' trans.)82 It clearly shows the nature of nirvana, 75 30 31 # Nsr., 176. S.B.S., p. 61. Ibid., p. 70. Ibid., 71, 72.
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________________ 34 JAIN JOURNAL that it is something beyond description and every condition whatsoever. Its nature is non-nature, and its non-nature is its nature ; it is through this affirmation that all points of attachment are abandoned, and pain ceases to be.83 The mode of expression that is preferred by the Buddha, to describe the nature of nirvana is made from absolute point of view (niscaya naya). From this point of view, the Jaina also speaks, "Know the self as devoid of word, taste, colour, smell, form and un-approachable by senses, (but), consciousness, which is indescribable."84 Also describing the nature of nirvana he says, "Where there is neither pain, nor annoyance, nor any obstruction, nor death, nor birth, there only is nirvana."85 "Where there are neither senses, nor is there any calamity, nor delusion, nor astonishment, nor sleep, nor desire, nor hunger; there only is nirvana."88 "Where there are neither any karma, nor quasi-karmas, nor is there any anxiety, nor painful or wicked concentration, nor righteous or pure concentration, there only is nirvana."87 In this way shedding off all the types of foreign elements the knower retires into its ownself making its ownself in the knower, the known and the knowledge simultaneously. Hence from intellectual point of view it is a total nihil (sunya). Yet this nihil is not the total ejection of one's own being, but is the elimination of the otherness and intellectualization of the being. "Bodhi is insight into the true nature of phenomena (dharma)."88 Through this insight into the unity of the Real the Buddha described the real nature of the Real, and accepted the universality of the unity negatively. The Jaina supplemented the Buddhist version by positive category too. : The Jaina, however, co-ordinated the transcendental unity of intuition with the immanent diversity of the intellect, and included both in the nature of the real. Both the attributes supplements each other. Intellect conceives what is perceived by intuition, while intuition perceives that is conceived by the intellect. Thus essentially both reveal the unity of the real. The Jaina posits the existence of the real first, then non-existence of the 'other'. 89 The Buddhist posits the non 86 88 Ibid., p. 59. 84 Ssr., 49. 85 Nsr., 178. Ibid., 179. 87 Ibid., 180. S.B.S., p. 81. 89 It is evident from the arrangement of the seven-fold categorization of Syadvada Logic. 88
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________________ WLY, 1970 existence of the 'other' first, then establishes the existence of the real by implication. Thus the Jaina and the Buddhist both equally maintaining "is" and "is-not" and the "indescribability of the simultaneity'' predicted a long before the mode of interpretation of Vedanta later adopted by Sankara. Sankara employed the same type of dialectic as was adopted by the Jaina several centuries before. He affirmed the pure existence of the Brahman denying its every kind of attributes from absolute point of view, which is as good as the nihil of Buddhism, also quite akin to the Jaina view of the pure existence of the real without the 'other'. Passions, aversions etc., are in the view of all the three systems a transitory phase of the mundane life, which remain no more in the nature of nirvana. The nirvana is identical with the purity of the real Nature. This shows that passions, aversions, etc., are not essentially in the nature of the self. Moreover, they are not included, says the Jaina, in the absolute nature of the pudgala too, for they are always relatively affirmed ; absolutely they are in none. Thus absolutely and essentially they are not at-all.The nirvana is an absolute state of the soul, which exposes the greatest metaphysical synthesis with a land-mark of initial unity of the ontological real pervading through the diversity of nayas. It is a symbol of unity-in-difference with its full logical subtlity at the plane of spiritual-spiritual, apart from the physical activities of the body. To sum up : The reality is, in the Jaina system, particularized basically in two ways ; the self (jiva) and the not-self (ajiva). From the mutuality of these two the mundaneness of the self is explained. The basic fact of mundane life appears in the form of suffering or misery (dukkha). The chain of misery is determined by the asrava and the bandha. The asrava and the bandha happen to be the causes of misery or the suffering. Since the misery is not a native quality of the self, it is removable. It is removed only by the check (samvara) of asrava and the annihilation (nirjara) of bandha. The samvara and nirjara constitue the path to tread upon in the course of getting rid of the misery. The fruit (phala) that is begotten by treading upon the path is salvation (moksa). In this way there are the seven principal categories (tattvas) of reality. They are the dynamic exposition of the self-restoring reality merging ultimately in the metaphysical unity of the Existence. 90 See A. Kh. to 371, p. 500.
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________________ GLEANINGS There is authentic evidence to prove that it was the Phoenicians who spread the worship of Rsabha in Central Asia, Egypt and Greece. He was worshipped as 'Bull God' in the features of a nude yogi. The ancestors of Egyptians originally belonged to India. The Phoenicians had extensive cultural and trade relations with India in the pre-historic days. In foreign countries, Rsabha was called in different names like Reshef, Apollo, Tesheb, Ball, and the Bull God of the Mediterranean people. The Phoenicians worshipped Rsabha regarded as Apollo by the Greeks. Reshef has been identified as Rsabha, the son of Nabhi and Marudevi, and Nabhi has been identified with the Chaldean God Nabu and Maru Devi with Murri or Muru. Risabhadeva of the Armenians was undoubtedly Rsabha, the first Tirthankara of the Jainas. A city in Syria is known as Rashafa. In Soviet Armenia was a town called Teshabani. The Babylonian city of Isbekzur seems to be a corrupt form of Risabhapur. Besides the Phoenicians, Accadia, Sumeria and Mesopotamia had trade and cultural relations with the Indus Valley and they carried the Rsabha cult to their lands. There is much evidence to prove that maritime relations existed between Greece and India. According to Greek writers, a saint of Taxila called Kolynos or Kalyanasvami accompanied Alexandar to Greece and lived at Athens for a number of years. Kalyanasvami has been identified as a Jaina ascetic. He committed sallekhana in Athens. A bronze image of Reshef (Rsabha) of the12th century B.C. was discovered at Alasia near Enkomi in Cyprus. An ancient Greek image of Appollo resembled Tirthankara Rsabha.
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________________ JULY, 1970 327 The images of Rsabha were found at Malatia, Boghaz Keui and also in the monument of Isbukjur as the chief diety of the Hittite pantheon. Excavations in Soviet Armenia at Karmir-Blur - near Erivan on the site of the ancient Urartian city of Teshabani have unearthed some images including one bronze statuette of Rsabha. Many other relics of Rsabha have been discovered in some of the foreign countries and illustrated articles on some of them have appeared in the Indian -press. These countries adopted the doctrines of Jainism and also the Brahmi script. The Indus Valley script, the ancient script of the Hebrews of Palestine, the ancient heiroglyphics of Egypt, the ancient Chinese script and the Sumerian script closely resembled the Brahmi script. The pre-Columbian civilisation of America had its origin in India. The four outstanding ancient cultures of the old European World prevalent in America, the Pueblo of the South-West, the Aztec of the Valleys and the highlands of Mexico, the Maya culture of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and the Inca culture of Peru closely resembled the cultures of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley of India. A Jaina Sutra in Chinese language was found by Prof. Nakamura of the Tokyo University. It proves that Jainism was prevalent among the Chinese several centuries ago. It is possible to adduce authentic evidence from Indian and European annals of religion to prove that the Arhat Dharma was once the predominating religion of mankind in different parts of the world. -V. G. Nair, Research in Religion.
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