Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/524013/1

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JINAMANJARI
International Journal of Contemporary Jaina Reflections
Volime 1 Number 1 April 1996 ISSN 1188-0287
382 in
9602
This Issue Explores Evidence Of
*130
10.VIS
Bilata
TRANA
EARLYFJAINISM Archaeology: Folk Religion and Women
with Theme Guest Editor Dr. Christopher Key Chapple
Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles California.
Bi-annual Journal from North America BRAMHI SOCIETY PUBLICATION

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JINAMANJARI for the expansion and diffusion of Jaina knowledge and reflection
Publication Council
a bi-annual Journal published
every April and October
President Dr. Dilip K. Bobna Tempe, AZ, USA
Member
Pradip Morbin Port Noches, TX, USA
Editor-in-Chief S. A. Bhuvanendra Kumar
Mr. Jitendra A. Shah Edmonton, Canada
Mr. S.N. Prakash Sylvania, OH, USA
Dr. Mahendra Jain Scarborough, Canada
Associate Editor S. N. Prakash
Prof. Srimandhar Kumar
Bangalore, India
Dr. Chandra K. Khasgiwala
Andover, MA, USA
Production Navita Jain Kumar
Dr. Mahendra R. Varis
Martin, KY, USA
Papers for publication must accompany with notes and references
seperate from the main body.
Send to the Editor 4665 Moccasin Trail, Mississauga, Ontario
Canada, LAZ 2W5 Telephone: (905) 890-3368
© Copyright of Articles is Reserved

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IN THIS ISSUE
Looking for Evidence of Early Jainas: Archaeology, Folk Religion and Women - Dr. Christopher K. Chapple
6
Approaches to the Question of the Antiquity of Jainism - Dr. Thomas McEvilley.
Laukika or Folk Religion as an Iconographic Link Between the Indus Culture and Jainism - Dr. Robert DeCaroli
42
The Jina Malli: Jainism and the Spirituality of Women - Dr. Katherine Anne Harper
Harappa and Jainism - T.N. Ramachandran
72
Mohenjo-Daro: Jaina Tradition and Evidence - Acarya Vidyanandji
79
Book Reviews · Mikal Austin Radford

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Looking for Evidence of Early Jainas Archaeology, Folk Religion, and Women
Christopher Key Chapple Loyola Marymount University
The origins of traditions and cultures have long fascinated scholars of religion. The Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions all look to Biblical accounts to explain not only the beginnings of their respective traditions, but the origin of the very universe itself, as narrated in the book of Genesis. The religious traditions of India offer a different model for the origins of things, with various perspectives from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina traditions proclaiming that the world and its religious traditions have no specific point or source of beginning. For the Hindus, the world arises from desire, as explained in Rig Veda X: 129, a text regarded to be authorless yet authoritative that asserts that no one can ever know the true origin of things, not even the gods, for they were born after the unknown, untraceable beginning of things. Similarly, the Buddha avoided speculation about the origin of things, as typified in his dialogue with Malunkyaputta, where he claims that such discussion does nothing to uproot the source of human suffering. The Jainas proclaim the eternality of all matter and all souls, and refute any theories that attribute the creation of things to a god or supernatural beings. In all these traditions, the accepted notions of creation and historicity so foundational to the prophetic montheisms simply do not arise.

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With the importation of the European disciplines of history and archaeology into India during the period of British colonization, and with ongoing evolutionary studies promulgated by physical anthropologists world-wide since the time of Darwin, scholars of Indian culture and history have sought to answer many questions regarding the subcontinent. When did the earliest peoples arrive in India? Did Dravidian culture and language once prevail throughout India? How extensive were the contracts between the Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley cities? Questions regarding the earliest phases of Indian history remain the most difficult to resolve. Issues stemming from more recent times can be more readily explained; it is easy to account for the influence of Universalism on the neo-Vedanta movement, to detect an amalgamation of Hindu and Islamic ideals within the Sikh tradition, to describe the rise of Vaisnava devotional movements in medieval Bengal, and Saiva movements in Southern India. During the Gupta period, and, before that, during the reign of Asoka, monuments and carefully guarded textual traditions enable us to reconstruct a fairly detailed history of Indian civilization and religious ideas. However, a lacuna exists, a gap of approximately one thousand years (1500 to 500 B.C.E.) during which neither great works of durable stone artistry nor written texts survive. During this period the oral Vedic tradition served as a thread binding together an emerging Brahmanical culture, but most artistry during this period probably was crafted in wood, hence leaving no material record. The teachings of many great religious leaders were transmitted orally until the advent of writing, in such texts as the Upanishads and the Buddhist Tripitaka. Even after the adoption of writing technology, most scribes worked with palm leaves, which decay after a few hundred years. Yet this period was a time of great innovation and creativity, a time of cross fertilization between the numerous indigenous cultures and the

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Vedic or Aryan peoples as they settled slowly throughout the subcontinent, bringing new ideas and ways of living.
The earliest archaeological records of Indian culture, dating approximately from 3500 to 1500 B.C.E., are found in the Indus Valley cities of Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, and Lothal (to name a few), which have been excavated and studied extensively. From the surviving streets and buildings, seals and amulets, we are able to glean little more than themes: respect for animals and trees, veneration of women, possible ritual use of water, and a proto-meditative tradition. The written language that appears on some of these artifacts has not yet been deciphered. Yet in these sparse physical remnants lay numerous clues regarding the early culture and religions in the Indian subcontinent.
This issue of Jinamanjari includes articles that draw both from prior scholarship on Indus Valley civilization and the authors' own reflections on the seals, amulets, and architecture, with particular focus on how these materials relate to the Jaina tradition. We begin with Thomas McEvilley's speculations on the relationship between the depictions of meditating figures in the Indus Valley seals and textual descriptions of similar or perhaps identical Jaina meditative poses. McEvilley also notes the importance of double serpentine imagery in both Indus Valley culture and later Jaina iconography. McEvilley cites middle Vedic reference to Jaina practice and describes the relationship between Mahavira and the Ajivakas, a now extinct sect that emphasized the power of fate over human efficacy, a position in direct opposition to Jaina teaching.
Robert DeCaroli acknowledges that many images from the Indus Valley civilization find prominence in later Jaina tradition: the tree, the meditator, the svastika, the snake, and the bull. However, he makes two important observations. The first is that all of these images similarly become incorporated into the Buddhist and Hindu traditions, making any exclusive claim for Jainism impossible. Second, too large a gap exists

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between the appearance of these artifacts in the Indus Valley (ca. 1500 B.C.E.) and their re-emergence in Jaina art and architecture (beginning ca. 300 B.C.E.) DeCaroli posits that these images perdured due to the strength of folk religion in India and its influence on renouncer (sramana) forms of religiosity.
Katherine Harper, drawing inspiration from Marija Gimbutas, suggest that early culture within India espoused an egalitarian attitude toward women. Citing archaeological and textual evidence, she surmises that this attitude was gradually eroded by the advance of the militaristic Aryans, who established patriarchy as the norm for both political and religious institutions within India. The sole exception, she posits, can be found in the orders of Jaina nuns, which Harper suggests links Jainism with pre-Aryan cultural forms.
Each of these three essays presents a unique perspective. McEvilley suggest that we can look to the early images and symbols from the Indus Valley civilization and see presages of later Jaina practice. DeCaroli, though hesitant to draw too close a connection due to a gap of several hundred years in the material record, nonetheless agrees that the imagery of early India has maintained its continuity through folk religious practices into the present. Harper, looking to continuous communities rather than archaeological remains, suggests that the bands of female renouncers that have served as a central distinguishing feature of the Jaina faith, link this tradition with an early phase in India's history where women lived autonomously, without the constraints of patriarchy.
As suggested earlier in this essay, these speculations do not find a place within the traditional historical understanding or cosmology of Jainism. They arise from a worldview that places great importance on verifiable historical data. These issues would not be discussed in the Tattvartha Sutra, and such speculations would not alter the core Jaina doctrines of karma, jiva, ahimsa, and anekantavada. Nonetheless, contemporary

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Jainas living in a world dominated by the Western view of history may find these articles helpful for understanding and appreciating the rich complex relationship between Jainism in its classical forms and the early religious themes of India as presented through the Indus Valley artifacts.
Editor's Note: Two articles, Harappa and Jainism by T.N. Ramachandran and Mohenjo-Daro: Jaina Tradition and Evidence by Acarya Vidyandaji, are later additions to this issue of Jinamanjari throw some new light on the Indus Valley Civilization in relation to the Jaina ascetic culture.

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Approaches to the Question of the Antiquity
of Jainism
Thomas McEvilley
The Antiquity Hypothesis
Unlike Buddha, who is traditionally regarded as more or less his contemporary, Mahavira is not said to have founded a religion, but a to have reformed one. Jain tradition speaks of twenty three teachers who preceded Mahavira in this World Cycle. The twenty first of these (that is, the third back from Mahavira) is dated by the Jains to a period which, as one author notes, "is a good 800,000 years before Pithecanthropus erectus."
In any case it seems likely on other grounds than hagiographic tradition that Jainism is a good deal older than the age of the Buddha. There are, in fact, elements in it which can be traced back to the Indus Valley culture, though perhaps by way of intermediary groups. It has even been suggested, and not implausibly in terms of the slight evidence available, that "those Jaina images of Parsvanatha (Mahavira's predecessor) that represent him with two serpents sprouting from his shoulders...point to a connection of some kind with ancient Mesopotamia."2 The question of the relationship between Sumerian culture and the Indus Valley is one of considerable dispute today. Still, the point if, for the moment, that Jainism represents an ancient current of religious theory and practices

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pre-dating the traditionally-posited Aryan invasion and later adopted by an Aryan kshatriya teacher, probably during the Middle or later Vedic period. This adoption seems to have been part of a broader attempt by the perhaps somewhat isolated Aryan community to enrich itself through incorporation of elements from other traditions.3 It may have been the teaching figure Mahavira who brought Jainism into the Aryan fold, but the Jain books say that his parents were devotees of the previous Jain leader, Parsva.
Jain thought as embodied in its philosophical tradition show signs of this antiquity. Jain atomism, for example, seems to have developed somewhat earlier than other Indian types, and Jain behavioural rules seem to preserve a memory of an earlier age of taboo alongside an austere ethics more characteristic of the religions of the time of Mahavira. Mahavira said, for example, that if you sat on an insect you got bad karma, automatically, Buddha said that if you were unaware that you were sitting on the insect, and had been reasonably concerned not to sit on any, then the accidental act did not bring with it bad karma. It may be that he loosened an earlier concept of karmic determinism somewhat. The Jain concept of omniscience is another seemingly early element in the sense that it has not been subjected to the kind of critical thought that Buddhist attitudes were subjected to that is, it had hardened as doctrine before the age of Mahavira.
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The Argument for the Antiquity of Jain Atomism
In the traditional Jain philosophy articulated in the ancient books, animate beings are composed of soul and body, distinct from one another. The souls, which are in their own nature totally distinct from matter - immaterial are eternal. Desires "cause the inflow of matter," that is, they attract matter to the soul, or the other way round soul from exercising its natural function in full measure. Souls
"and prevent the

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are substance characterized by intelligence, and differences among souls are due to the degree of their connection with matter."S Desires plunge the soul ever deeper into matter, driving it onward through a series of incarnations; "the self is never separated from matter until its final release. "6
So long as it is separate from the body the soul is perfect and pure, but inexplicably it "attracts" to itself some particles of "karmic matter" which "sully" its purity and force it to enter the embodied state.? Once embodied, the soul, bewitched by the instrumentality of the body at satisfying its own desires, attracts further "karmic matter," which "pours itself into the soul and sticks there by coming into contact with the passions of the soul."8 The process becomes self-sustaining
To reconcile this soul-body dualism with atomism, Jain texts recognize two classes of particles, both evidently material: gross particles that make up physical bodies and very fine ones that make their way into the soul and stick or cling there; this matter composed of exceedingly fine particles is karmic matter.
Karmic matter is conceived in the traditional Jain texts as somehow "in" the soul. "The passions of the soul...act like viscous substances in retaining the inpouring karmic matter."9 "Karma is an aggregate of the material particles which are very fine and are imperceptible to the senses.... Through the actions of the body, mind, and speech, the finer matter gets into the soul and is tied to it."10 Jain texts use various images to express the relationship between the soul and karmic matter. The idea of "sticking to" is most common; and the image of a stained cloth is often used. An alternate translation of karma varna is not karmic matter, but karmic dirt. "The soul, disturbed by the activity of mind, speech, or body, attracts the dirt of that substance (karma).... The passions of anger, conceit, crookedness, and greed give direction and intensity to that dirt. The stronger the passions, the longer will the dirt of karma last.... The way to salvation demands a deliberate attempt by

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the soul to purify itself from the karmic dirt by stopping new accumulations and destroying the old."12 Thus the soul, having been penetrated with karmic matter, and saturated with it as a stained cloth is saturated with the staining material, is still saturated with matter after it leaves the body.
The problem with this doctrine is that it seems to conflated two somewhat irreconcilable traditions. If the soul is in itself absolutely immaterial, than it cannot provide an armature onto which particles of matter, regardless of how fine they are, could adhere themselves.
In both Upanishadic and Buddhist texts, when atomism is discussed as an hypothesis, the atoms are maintained as of only one type, because they do no have to serve both a soul and a body. Qualities such as spirit and personality, and so on, are seen as by-products or epiphenomena of the physical situation. The Jain form of atomism seems to represent a slightly earlier age.
Jainism and Ajivikism
Mahavira and the Ajivika leader Makkhali Gosala seem, according to the recorded lore, to have started their careers in the same order but quarrelled over issues and separated. Several important points were in dispute between them. One was the relationship between reincarnation, and individual will or effort.
The Ajivika form of the doctrine of reincarnation was deterministic. They taught that "As long as the life monad has not completed the normal course of its evolution (running through a fixed number of inevitable births) there can be no realization."13 The possibility of early escape from the cycle of reincarnations, with its invitation to special ethical efforts, seems to have been doctrinally regard as among the blind paths that lead "to no realization."

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Gosala taught a resigned attitude of endurance, since in his view the cycle was inalterable and there was no early escape. In that situation the ethical value of one's behaviour meant nothing; one was simply serving time. Mahavira, on the other hand, wished his followers to rely on their personal efforts and strivings for release, in part through increased ethical responsibility
The evidence suggests that Ajivikism was the older of the two traditions, indeed that Jainism may have been a puritanical reform group splintered off from the more primitive Ajivika root. The doctrine of a fixed cycle with no avenue of early escape may have been an older version of the doctrine than Yajnavalkhya's in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which like Mahavira, stressed the ethical aspect of personal effort to gain release. 14
Gosala
The Ajivika teacher Makkhali Gosala was regarded as an antinomian because he rejected the doctrines of karma and ethical responsibility. Gosala was non-Aryan, perhaps Dravidian; Yajnavalkhya, the great Upanishadic articulator of reincarnationism, and Mahavira, who crossed the line between taboo and ethics, are both, in their traditions, said to have been Aryans of the kshatriya class.
The impersonal cyclical view of Gosala may have been revised into its supposedly ethical form when it was introduced into the teachings of an intrusive Aryan ruling class with a specific interest in controlling the behaviour of others through a severe ethical doctrine.
Nastika and Astika
At the time when the distinction between Ajivikism and Jainism was being felt and articulated, the various nastika

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religions were in seedling forms and shared many points while differing on others. The probably older Ajivika doctrine emphasizing cosmic process and de-emphasizing individual ethical choices coexisted with the ethical form of the cycle, with its reward of early release for good behaviour. Kshatriya teachers rebelling form brahminical control as the Aryan state began to emerge modified Vedic sacrificialism in different ways. Some made it into a transcendental doctrine, as in the Upanishads, some distanced themselves altogether, as in the cases of Jainism and Buddhism, both probably kshatriya defections to modified forms of Dravidian-based Ajivikism. In the Late Vedic period these various doctrines were mingling and interacting in constantly changing ways, until the new set of "orthodoxies" was firmly in place. 15
Jainism and the Indus Valley Visual Record
The philosophical or doctrinal record, as well as the pious chronicles, suggests a pre-Mahaviran period of Jainism. There is also an archaeological and visual trail of evidence which seems powerfully connected to the implication of antiquity in the philosophical record, disputed the fact that there is a vast chasm of obscurity -- and absence of evidence -- between the two evidential trails. The empirical method here has to connect with the logical positivist acceptance of inference.
I have written before about apparent Jain connection with various Indus Valley seals (as have Marshall and others before me. 16 There are two central groups of Indus Valley images involve in the argument: first, those which portray seated figures with special characteristics that relate to the Jain tradition; secondly, those which depict standing figures with similar connections.
To regard the seated figures first: I have written about them already, and will not repeat much. Six seal impressions

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a
show figures seated in specific yogic positions or asanas possible range of asanas which for convenience I will generically call mulabandhasana. In this type of position which is not really sitting so much as squatting -- the heels are raised and joined under the perineum; the knees may or may not be extended to the sides. The arms lie as if limply on the knees. This position appears often enough in Indus Valley seals to be considered characteristic, and also in several later contexts, down to the present day. It may be presumed to have existed continuously in India throughout this period.
Though not in the publicized foreground of yoga, the mulabandhasana type of posture has surfaced in a series of related instances. Chronologically, the first appearances after the Indus Valley seals occur in two of the oldest Jain works, the Akaranga Sutra and the Kalpa Sutra. Both narrate traditional lives of the last thirthankara, Mahavira, which centre around the iconic moment of his enlightenment. The Kalpa Sutra says [my italics]:
During the thirteenth year, in the second month of the summer...on the northern bank of the river Rigupalia, in the field of a householder Samagra, in a north-eastern direction from an old temple, not far from a Sal tree, in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, he reached the highest knowledge and intuition, called kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete, and full (KS 120) 16.
The phrase "in a squatting position with joined heels: indicates one of the forms of the mulabandhasana, the dominant posture in the Indus seal impressions. The phrase is repeated in the corresponding passage of the Akaranga Sutra,

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which also provides us with a description of the platform on which the Venerable One was carried about:
[This palanquin] was adorned with pictures of wolves, bulls, horses, men, dolphins, birds, monkeys, elephants, antelopes, srabhas, yaks, tigers, lions, creeping plants, and a train of couples of Vidyaharas. (AS 21)
If we choose, as Marshall did, to think of the seated and horned figure in the Indus seals in terms of later Indian religion, we might better regard it as the prototype of this Jain scene than as a prototype of Siva Pasupati, as Marshall tends to indicate. The Jain parallel offers not only what seems to be the same asana -- and one in which Siva in never portrayed -- but also the platform with surrounding animal images.
Clearly these seals suggest some degree of continuity between the Indus Valley religion and the Jainism of Mahavira though possibly greater elements of discontinuity will emerge as we proceed.
The Indus Valley Visual Record - Part Two
The proto-Jain hypothesis gains credibility from other seeming parallels within the Indus Valley iconography. Parsva, the thirthankara before Mahavira, is said to have been protected on both sides by upright serpents at the moment when he fell into kevala. 17 One of the Indus seal impressions which shows a figure seated in mulabandhasana flanked by upright serpents may represent the prototype of this scene. Siva, of course, may be depicted with serpents on his person, Visnu reclining on a serpent, and Buddha sheltered by one, but only Parsva is traditionally described as flanked by upright serpents.

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Furthermore, there are several Indus Valley seal impression that may represent the Jain posture called kayotsarga, "dismissing the body posture," in which Rishabha, the first of the twenty-four thirthankaras, is said to have passed into kevala. 18 The kayotsarga is an upright posture with arms hanging somewhat stiffly and held slightly away from the sides of the body; sometimes in sculpture the arms are shown unusually long, hand reaching about to the knees. 19 These identifications may be strengthened by the fact that Rishabha, Parsva, and Mahavira are the only tirthankaras whom scholars widely regard as historical -- those, that is, whose stories might retain some memory of actual facts: the postures may be among these facts.
Mahavira's Jainism seems to have developed out of and away from a stream of religious practice that flowed from the Indus Valley, and that our next example will permit us to define more closely.
The Indus Valley Visual Record - Part Three
Utkatasana is mentioned in a formula used repeatedly in the Pali canon to describe, and denounce, the austerities of certain ascetics of whom the Buddha disapproved 20 Three "false austerities" are mentioned: the "bat penance," or hanging upside down, the penance of standing upright for long periods of time, and ukkutikappadhana, or "exerting oneself in the squatting posture." The penance of standing up is kayotsarga, found in Jainism. The bat penance also appears in Jainism,21 and will be discussed later. The third of these "false penances" seems to relate to the posture on the seals.
The Pali Text Dictionary defines ukkutika as "a special manner of squatting. The soles of the feet are firmly on the ground, the man sinks down, the heels slightly raised as he does so, until the thighs rest on the calves, and the hams are about six inches or more from the ground."22 The raising of the

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heels indicates that this is not the everyday squatting-on-theheels position, in which the heels are flat on the ground, but that it is the yogic position of utkatasana (one of several that I refer to generically as of the mulabandhasana type), of which the Gheranda Samhita (II.27) says: "Let the heels be raised in the air; place the anus on the heels." The raising of the heels so they join under the anus is essential, and the importance of this seemingly insignificant detail will become clear as we proceed. The practice of ukkutikappadhana, then, or "exerting oneself in the squatting posture," would seem to be the same activity portrayed on the Indus seals, except that the figure on the seals was portrayed with knees fully to the sides.
One of the Jataka references to utkatasana (J.1.493) identifies its practitioners are Ajivikas. The Majhima Nikaya (1.515) agrees by implication, saying that utkatasana is practiced by one who is naked and shaven, and who "plucks out the hairs of his head and beard." Both Jain and Ajivika ascetics went naked and shaved or plucked their heads and beards, but these practices seem to have been adopted by the Jains from the Ajivikas, and it probably the latter to whom the Pali passages refer.
Who Were the Ajivikas?
The Ajivikas were an ascetic group headed in the Buddha's time by Makkhali Gosala. They seem to have been very closely connected with Jainism, and due to the loss of all Ajivika scriptures, we are dependent on the highly sectarian Jain account of the relationship (mostly in the Bhagavati Sutra).
According to the Jain view, Gosala was "an unruly disciple" of Mahavira, who, after following him for six years, broke away over a point of doctrine. 23 Both Barua and Jacobi, however, regard this as a pious fiction of the Jains: the

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evidence suggests that it was Gosala who was the master and Mahavira the disciple who broke away. 24
The Jain tradition seems to preserve some memory of Mahavira's conversion to Gosala's sect, and his later defection. Parsva, the thirthankara prior to Mahavira, in whose religion Mahavira was born, allowed his followers two articles of clothing. Gosala went completely naked, however, and Mahavira, after meeting him, adopted the rule of nakedness also. The implication is that Mahavira joined Gosala's group, adopting its rules. There are in addition many points that suggest the greater antiquity of Ajivikism over Mahavira's form of Jainism, including "goblin worship," "secret magical rites of a repulsive tantric type" (as Basham calls them), blood rites, and a shamanic-style initiation involving a symbolic rebirth for adult males and the grasping of a "heated lamp."25 As Barua said, Ajivikism "represents...an earlier stage of thought evolution and religious discipline...than the period covered by the early history of Jainism and Buddhism as expounded by Mahavira and Buddha."26
Nastika and Astika - Part Two
The Buddha and Mahavira both seem to represent reforms of an earlier ascetic tradition that emphasized magic, sexuality, and physical austerity, rather than karma, celibacy, and meditation. Gosala, on the other hand, was a conservative who espoused an ancient way which may go back to the Indus Valley.
Mahavira, if Jacobi and Barua are right, had encountered the ancient ways while in Gosala's group, but the Buddha had also once participated in this older tradition, prior to his insights beneath the bodhi tree. The Digha Nikaya (III.37-56) describes ascetics who plucked out their hair and beards and were "standers up or squatters on heels," that is, they practiced kayotsarga and mulabandhasana or utkatasuna.

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The Majhima Nikaya (1.78-79) adds that the Buddha himself once practiced this sadhana, that is, he was himself either and Ajivika or something closely related to it.
Ajivikism, in short, was part of the more ancient yogic stream from which the Buddha and Mahavira were breaking away with their reforms, and which may go directly back to the Indus Valley.
The Evidence of the Middle Vedic Literature
There are numerous Ajivika and Jain connections in the Muni Hymn of the Rg Veda (X.136). It describes what is widely regarded as "a pre-Aryan magician,"27 who is long haired (kesin); "wind-girt," or naked (vatarasana); "maddened" or ecstatic with silence or austerity (unmadita mauneya); smeared with yellow dust;28 and possessed of many siddhis.
Scholars have tended to see Ur-Saivism in this figure, but there are Ajivika and Jain connections as well. The Ajivika as much as the Saiva smeared himself with ashes and vowed silence and in fact is known to have done so from an earlier date. Furthermore, as Mrs. Stevenson pointed out, "The Jaina monk is also called the Muni,"29 and the name Kesi (which is sometimes applied to Rudra [e.g., AV XI.2.18]) is also prominent in Jain tradition. Rishabha, the first tirthankara, who became enlightened in the kayotsarga position, which may be present on the Indus seals, was called Kesi; Jain scholars claim that "this Kesi [of the Rg Veda] alludes to Rishabha."30 Indeed, the leader of the Parsvaite community in Mahavira's day seems to have been named "Kesi", which, like muni, may have been a typical designation for a Jain ascetic of the pre-Mahaviran (pre-celibate) period. The muni's nakedness also connects him with the Ajivika-Jain tradition as much as (more than?) the Saiva. The Ajivikas were the only order to go totally naked, until Mahavira prescribed nakedness for Jain monks, too. Digambara, "sky-clad," an adjective applied to one

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sect of Jains and sometimes to Siva, expresses the same religious value as vatarasana, "wind-girt." In short, the Muni Hymn, although it does indeed have Saiva connections, has as many Ajivika and Jain ones.
Middle Vedic Literature - Part Two
The Artharva Veda describes another proto-yogic figure, the vratya, who stood upright for a year. The Vedic gods are presented as perplexed by this activity:
For a whole year he stood erect. The gods said unto him, "Why standest thou?" (AV XV.3)
Yet, despite the confusion of the Vedic gods, this activity is typical of the non-Aryan stream of yoga, from which the vratyas seem to have been among the first to emerge into documentary history.
The point is, that apparent remnants of this practice survive in Jainism, where one of the avasyakas, or essential duties of a monk, is "the stabilization of the body without the least motion" in "different postures...which benefit the soul and are difficult to perform."31 The most common of these positions is kayotsarga, standing motionless for long periods of time, which is probably what the vratya was doing. It is also what the tirthankaras Rishabha and Parsva were doing when they became enlightened. It was a common austerity of the Ajivikas, and it has tentatively been identified in the Indus seals. Again, the Vedic literature provides a link between the Indus Valley and the Ajivika-Jain tradition.
From Body to Mind
It is possible that some forms of meditation arose in part from the deliberate practice of immobility, which in

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sufficient time will progressively immobilize mental process as well as bodily movement. the roots of this practice may be speculatively sought in shamanism. The Jain Uttara Sutra (XXX.6) says, "If a monk remains motionless when lying down, sitting, or standing upright, this is called abandoning the body. "32 The phrase suggests "leaving the body," as the shaman is believed to do on his magical journeys, when his body often remains motionless as if dead or abandoned. 33 That such a practice was a part of the proto-Jain Ur-yoga is likely, for the muni of the Rg Veda X.136 says:
Exulting in our seerhood, upon the winds we have ascended. Of us, you mortals, only our bodies do you behold.
The Middle Vedic literature, in other words, indicates stages of Jainism at least as early as 1000 B.C.E., as chronological guesses about the Middle Vedic period have tended..
Later Cultic Evidence
Information about some Medieval Indian sects offers confirmation for the association of Jainism with quasishamanic proto-yoga. In historical times, in the non-Aryan tradition, the goddesses known as the Seven Mothers (sapta matrika) were worshipped with human sacrifice. virtually all the cults that are involved in the non-Aryan substrate worshipped them at one time or another, including Pasupatas, Kapalikas, Aghoris, Ajivikas and Jains.
The ancient affiliation of the Jains with these semiprimitive sects is shown by the fact that, despite their famous obsession with ahimsa, Jains also engaged in these rites, cutting off pieces of their own flesh and throwing them into a
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Conclusion?
That the Jain tradition was somewhat younger than the Ajivika and somewhat older than the Buddhist as we have it formulated is implied by doctrinal issues discussed above. These philosophical and documentary arguments are strongly reinforce by visual evidence driving from the Indus Valley.
It cannot conclusively be demonstrated from documentary evidence that the proto-Jain tradition went back to the Indus Valley culture. But the prominent appearance of the Indus seals of the positions mulabandhasana and kayotsarga, and their later occurrences in Jain contexts, is clearly suggestive of that conclusion. That both mulabandhasana and kayotsarga are especially characteristic of Jainism -- being positions in which at least three tirthankaras are reported to have attained enlightenment -- suggests a strong connection between the roots of the Jain tradition and the mysterious and elusive Indus Valley culture. O
Endnotes
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, New York: The Viking Press, 1962, p.220. 2 Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of India, Bollingen Series. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1955, p.208.
For More discussion of this thesis, see McEvilley, "An Archaeology of Yoga," RES 1, Spring, 1981, pp. 44-77. + See P.S. Jaini, "On the Sarvajnatva (Omniscience) of Mahavira and the Buddha," in Buddhist Studies in Honour of 1.B. Horner Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1974, pp. 71-90.
Sarvepalli Radhkarihnan and Charles A. Moore, edd., A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1957, p.250.
6 Ibid
Surendranath Dasgupta, History of Indian Philosophy, vol. 1, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1975, pp. 190-191.
8 Ibid
Dasgupta, History, vol. 1, p.191. 10 ML Mehta, Outline of Jaina Philosophy, Bangalore: Jain Mission Society, 1954, pp. 134135. 1 Walter Schubring, The Doctrine of the Jainas, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1962, pp. 173174. 12 Indra Chandra Shastri, "Jainism and the Way to Spiritua: Realization," in Aspects of Jainism (reprints from The Aryan Path) Bangalore: Jain Mission Society, 1955, pp. 1-2.
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ves.
13 Zimmer, Philosophies of India, p. 264. 14 Much more on this argument lies in my still-unpublished book length manuscript, The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies of Greek and Indian Philosophies. 13 The Chinese visitor Hiuen Tsang felt that Jainism was an offshoot of Buddhism. Jacobi has argued that it was more the other way round. (note 46 orig.) He points to the presence in very early Jain texts of "primitive animism," while Schubring stresses conceptions "coming near to primitive sorcery." (note 47 orig.) The Eurocentric term "primitive" is used in both cases. 10 See Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilization, 3 vols., London: A. Probsthain, 1931. 17 Herman Jacobi, trans., Gaina Sutras, pt. 1, Sacred Books of the East, vol. 22, Oxford, 1884. 18 Heinrich Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, 2 vols., Bollingen Series vol. 39, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1960, vol. 1, p.59. 19 See Ramaprasad Chanda, "Sind Five Thousand Years Ago," Modern Review (Calcutta), August, 1932. pp. 159-169, and Marshall, Mohenjo-Daro, pl. XXI 14, 19. 20 This point was mentioned in connection with the Indus sealings, albeit using inaccurate terms, by Adris Banerjee, Origins of Jaina Practices," JOI (Baroda) I, 1952, p.314. They type is shown by Jyotindra Jain and Eberhard Fischer, Jain Iconography, pt. 1, The Thirthankara, Leiden, 1978, pl. XXVIII. 41 D. 1.167; M 1.78; A 1.296, II.206; J 1.493, III.235, IV.299, Dh. 141. 22 For the bat penance (vagguli-vatta) see Richard Morris, "Notes and Queries," Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1884, p.95. For its occurrence in Jainism see Schubring, Doctrine, p.318. 23 T.W. Rhys-Davids and William Stede, Pali-English Dictionary, Delhi, 1955. 24 Mrs. Sinclair Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism, Oxford, 1915, p.60. 2) Benimadhab Barua, A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy, Delhi, 1921, p.300, and the "The Ajivikas," Journal of the Department of Letters (University of Calcutta), II, 1920, pp. 18-20; Jacobi, Jaina Sutras, II. XXIX. 26 A.L. Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas, London, 1951, pp. 104-106, 112-113, 164. 27 "The Ajivikas," p.21. 20 Quoted by M.G. Bhagat, Ancient Indian Asceticism, Delhi, 1976, p. 11. 29 For this translation of the second sloka see, e.g., Raimundo Pannikar, The Vedic Experience, Berkeley, 1977, p.436; Jeanine Miller, "Forerunners of Yoga: The Kesin Hymn," in J. Miller and George Feuerstein, Yoga and Beyond: Essays in Indian Philosophy, New York, 1972, p.95; J. W. Hauer, Der Yoga, Stuttgart, 1958, p.29. 30 Quoted by Bhagat, Asceticism, p. ll. 3. Kailash Chand Jain, Lord Mahavira and His Times, Delhi, 1974, p.6 32 Haripada Chakraborti, Asceticism in Ancient India, Calcutta, 1973, pp. 368, 437. 33 Kalipada Mitra, "Magic and Miracle in Jaina Literature," JHO XV, 1930, p. 108. 34 Haripada Chakraborti, Asceticism in Ancient India, Calcutta, 1973, p.371.
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Laukika or Folk Religion As an Iconographic Link Between
The Indus Culture and Jainism
Robert DeCaroli University of California, L.A.
The Jain mendicant Somadeva employed the term laukika in the tenth century in order to differentiate between the two duties of the laity. According to him, laukika refers to ones's connections to worldly affairs and customs while paralaukika refers to what one learns from the words of the Jina. Somadeva goes on to explore which aspects of laukika are acceptable to the Jain laity and in so doing defines for us a range of popular religious practices aimed at improving one's worldly condition and alleviating material concerns. From Somadeva's words, as well as from many earlier Jain, Buddhist and Hindu textual and physical evidence, we know of a widespread form of worship practiced by both the common folk and kings which was directed towards the appeasement and honouring of local deities. These deities make up the vast pantheon of India's chtonic devas whose ranks include the wealth-granting yaksas, the seductive yaksis, watery nagas and apsaras, the fierce kinnaras and pisacas and a host of various other figures like gandharvas, bhutas and raksasas. Together, these deities infuse the landscape with supernatural
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significance by inhabiting trees, pools, mountains and groves, while opening up to humans the wealth, health and fertility contained within the natural world. They are, in short, the masters of all things carnal, and as such, maintain a popularity among the public while being courted, adapted and denounced by Brahmanism and the renouncer (sramana) traditions.
Jainism, like Buddhism and Hinduism, eventually began to absorb and adapt aspects of this popular religious tradition in an effort to remain pertinent and accessible to the laity. U.P. Shah summarizes this process by stating:
Thus the deities of the people who formed the earliest inhabitants of India... were being incorporated gradually by Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism...it is in the beliefs and practices of these ancient inhabitants of India that the origin of the worship of a large number of Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina deities ultimately lies.2
This paper will explore the truth of the above statements in an effort to identify this popular (or laukika) tradition as the medium through which ancient images known from the Indus culture entered Jainism. To suggest, however, that the meanings of these images remained the same throughout time would be to falsely impose a 1,200 year stagnancy on Indian culture whose dynamic history of intellectual, religious and political change denies any such assumption. Instead, I argue for the continued religious importance of this iconography relayed through the medium of the popular tradition from the times of the Indus culture (c.2000-1700 B.C.E.) until its incorporation into the emergent religious traditions of the fifth century B.C.E.. And to what degree, if any, these images retained their initial meanings must remain a matter of speculation due to our lack of information about their role in Indus culture and society. Nevertheless, the contexts in which these images occur

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throughout different periods of history can be examined in an effort to locate apparent similarities in function and setting that suggest further similarities of meaning.
However, in trying to work backwards in establishing the meanings of past imagery in light of present ideologies one must be extremely cautious not to impose meanings where they do not belong in hope of establishing the ancient roots of contemporary practices. In fact, some excellent scholars have, according to S.P. Gupta, made exactly this mistake in attempting to link aspects of Jainism to the Indus culture. For instance, he questions U.P. Shah's prudence in identifying a 100 B.C.E. bronze image of Parsvanatha in the Prince of Wales Museum as being "modelled in the Indus style", a style which Shah identifies as having continued to the Mauryan period. Gupta challenges Shah's claim by pointing out that there is no physical evidence on which to base this 1,600 year stylistic continuity and he introduces archaeological evidence which further undermines Shah's conclusion. Specifically, Gupta points out that the construction techniques employed in the production of the Parsvanatha image suggest a re-discovery of the cire perdue (lost wax) method of casting bronze rather than a continuity from the Indus culture. Furthermore, if the entire technique of casting was lost it is unlikely that the artistic style would have remained intact.3
Likewise, S.P. Gupta challenges M.N. Deshpande' s claim regarding the links betweeen Jain practice and a standing figure portrayed on an Indus culture steatite seal. Specifically, the seal depicts a man standing in what appears to be the kayotsarga-posture. the presence of this posture on a seal lead Deshpande to conclude that this "distinctive practice of the Jain ascetics in their performance of penance had its roots in Harappan art."4 Gupta rightly challenges this hasty conclusion by referring to the headdress, armlets and subsidiary figures represented on the seal which have no connection to Jain practice and hence seriously problematize any identification of

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the standing figure with Jainism.5 These examples reveal that too often we, as scholars, are over-eager to find familiar meanings in the images of antiquity. Rather than seeking to locate Jain influence in early iconography, we should look for early influences on the iconography of Jainism.
The fact that Jainism and the creations of the Indus culture share some imagery in common is not being questioned. However, any argument that seeks to find Jain meanings in the Indus images or seeks a seamless continuity between the two is betrayed by the physical and textual evidence. For instance, the earliest known Jain image is a torso that was made during the reign of Asoka's grandson Samprati and has been dated to the third century B.C.E. Whereas, the earliest Jain iconographic cannons do not appear until the first to fourth centuries C.E., and it is not until the writing of the Brhatsamhita in the six century C.E. that we have the first textual mention of an image of a tirthankara. All this goes to suggest that Jainism, no matter what the exact date of its origins, did not develop a recognizable iconography until the first few centuries B.C.E., and it was not until the first few centuries C.E. that it became codified through the use of textual cannons.
Many centuries, therefore, separate the images of the Indus culture and the appearance of similar images in the artworks of early Jainism. In order to span this gap in time separating the end of the Indus culture and the first Jain artworks, we must look to the popular, non-Brahmanical religions of early India which preserved this potent imagery if not its initial meanings, through the centuries. Ultimately, the evidence for the transmission of this imagery though popular religious practice is hard to identify due to the lack of permanent artworks made or structures built by the followers of the folk tradition. In fact it is only by finding parallel imagery within Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism, as they struggled to absorb and adapt aspects of the popular tradition,

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that its impact on them can be deduced. In short, the presence of Indus imagery within all three emerging and solidifying religious traditions, which were each attempting to co-opt aspects of the popular tradition in order to draw and maintain public support, points to the popular tradition as the common source of this imagery and as its sole link to the Indus culture.
The laukika, or popular religious traditions, preserved the religious importance of the Indus culture imagery for many centuries and, as Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism each sought to incorporate aspects of this popular tradition within themselves they borrowed, absorbed and adapted portions of this imagery to suit their individual needs. However, before the transmission of specific images is explored it is important to first identify why these traditions needed to confront and interact with the popular traditions at all.
Jainism and the Popular Tradition
As Padmanabh Jaini points out, the merit making goals of the laity and the nirvana seeking ideals of the monks and nuns are not always compatible, but are necessary to the continued support and existence of the monastic community. To accommodate this dichotomy all the sramana religions had to make concessions to the popular traditions of the day in order to maintain and gain popular support. Jainism changed in this way much less than Buddhism, although it did borrow some aspects of the popular traditions.
One of the clearest examples of this borrowing can be seen in the growing importance of yaksas and yaksis within the history of Jainism itself. In the earliest texts the yaksas are represented as malefic beasts who threaten the safety of humanity in a passionate rush to satisfy their own appetites. Before long, however, tales were being written in which Mahavira, like the Buddha, begins to convert these fierce, hungry creatures by calmly teaching them the Jain doctrines.?

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Even though the earliest textual and physical example only mention the yaksi Ambika and the yaksa Sravanabhuti accompanying Jinas, by the end of the Gupta period many more of these minor deities became incorporated into Jainism as each of the twenty-four tirthankaras is recongnized as being attended by at least two.8 Eventually, these deities become ideal models for the Jain laity as exemplary supporter and protectors of the monks on their quest for nirvana. This protective function is perhaps best represented in the actions not of a yaksa but, rather, by the naga king, Dharanendra, who shielded the meditating Parsvanatha from worldly distractions so he could work undisturbed towards attaining liberation.
These minor deities provided a crucial connection to the lay community and were recognized as being able to reward those who followed the Jain teachings. 9 The tangibility and receptiveness of these deities contrasted with the total absence of the transcendent Jinas who were removed from interaction with human concerns. If, however, a Jain performed worship and gave with a selfless desire to emulate the example of the tirthankaras, the attendant deities would become pleased and were known to reward devout worshippers. This dynamic in which the more one gives up the more one is rewarded, provided he or she has good intentions, allowed Jainism to compete with the wish-granting deities of Hinduism while staying true to its ideals.
Soon, an entire pantheon of these minor deities was in place with Purnabhadra, Manibhadra and the other thirteen yaksa chiefs in charge. Interestingly, at the close of the Gupta period there seems to have been a fervent upsurge in the popularity of these figures as is suggested by the fact that most of these deities' names do not appear in older texts or inscriptions. 10 In fact, this dramatic proliferation of local deities also seems to have effected the roles taken by some members of the monastic community. One text mentions that the yaksas worship and obey those who practice celibacy while
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other texts tell of special groups of clerics, known as yatis and bhattarakas, who specialized in dealing with yaksas. In this way it seems that some of the Jain community took on the function of acting as intermediaries between the minor deities and the public. The growing importance and authority granted to these deities is also attested to in the physical evidence. For example, in the remains of early structures and sculpture it is clear that the yaksas could only be worshipped in conjunction with the Jinas but, after some time, we begin to see separate shrines dedicated to honouring the yaksas themselves. 12
Naturally, this sort of divergence from the goals of Jainism met with a strict backlash as both the monastic community and the laity worked to set right these trends away from the Jainism's sramana foundations. In fact, there are records of public protests against caitya-vasis, or "templedwelling" monks who were denounced as not being true mendicants in keeping with the Jain traditions of renunciation. 13 Likewise, in the eight century texts were written in which the authors describe explicitly how to stop worshipping non-Jain deities and replace them with the Jain attendant deities in an effort to limit the amount and type of popular influence entering Jain practice. 14 Similarly, it was in response to the trend toward popular religion that Somadeva wrote his tenth century text declaring what was and was not acceptable behaviour for a Jain. In his effort to stem the tide of popular influences on Jain practice Somadeva denounced the worship of the sun, fire, trees, mounds of earth and cows while also forbidding the Vedic evening sacrifice (sandya) and the worship of the pitraloka whose funerary function contradicted Jain teachings on rebirth. 15 These trends against the influx of popular religion seem to have been effective and by the thirteenth century the authority and importance of these minor deities had dwindled to the point where Pandita Asadhara was able to describe yaksas as being "only for the ignorant."16 This movement away from the honouring of deities reached its
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culmination among the fifteenth century Jain iconoclasts lead by Lonka Shah who labelled idol worship of any sort as being heresy.17 While images and minor deities still play an important part in most Jain communities, the threat they posed to Jainism has been resolved and the supremacy of the Jinas is no longer in question.
Therefore, after having summarized briefly this complex interaction between Jain practice and the popular traditions of India, it is possible to see how popular iconography could have become absorbed into Jainism. It was necessary to identify and describe the popular traditions lying outside of Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain practice in order to explain how images found in the Indus culture's remains could have entered all three religions. The popular traditions served as a bridge connecting these religions to the past, and when these emerging religions tried to co-opt portions of the popular tradition in order to garner public support, it is natural that they would have chosen some of the most ancient and potent imagery available.
The Imagery of the Indus Culture
Among the earliest identifiable objects of Jain construction are the ayagapata stones from Kankali-Tila in Mathura. These decorated stone slabs were incorporated into the decoration of the early Jain caityas, and were included in the construction of Jain stupas. That these stones were intended for Jain structures and functions is attested to by the iconography, which at times includes the central image of a nude meditating figure, most likely representing a Jina; the presence of an inscription on one example stating that it was intended for the "offerings to arhants" further supports this conclusion. Interestingly, Bharatiya Jnanpith identifies these ayagapata stones as having been derived from the low stone

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thrones which were placed under trees in early caityas and used as focuses of worship when honouring local deities. 18
That the tree-caitya with a throne was originally used for poplar religious functions is confirmed by stories, like the Palasa-Jataka, which identify these wide, fenced-off enclosures as containing wishing-trees (kalpavrksa) and as being the residences of yaksas and other important local deities, 19 Similarly, the fact that the caitya pre-dates both Buddhist and Jain architectural constructions is verified by the textual accounts which independently describe both the Buddha and Mahavira as having sought shelter within these structures. It is here, within these sacred enclosures dedicated to popular religion, that both of these important religious figures were confronted and challenged by ravenous yaksas. 20 Naturally, the great teachers were able to convert the fierce creatures through their respective virtuous behaviour and spiritual insights. Just as the yaksas themselves were converted, this architectural form was soon adapted to serve both Jain and Buddhist purposes.
Jainism has a long history of tree imagery which is best known through the image of the Jina seated in meditation under a tree. Shah links this type of image to the ancient examples of yaksas and tree images known in Southern India.21 He goes on to point out that the forms of worship described in relation to popular worship closely resembles some of the modern forms of Jain worship, most notably the eight-fold worship (aksat puja). In both the Jain and popular forms of worship the bathing of the image, the giving of flowers and food as well as the burning of incense and lamps were all seen as having the ability to generate positive spiritual results. Even though the ideas behind these two religious traditions differ and differences between Jain and popular conceptions of sacredness and divinity exist, the fact that the trappings in both traditions are the same suggests some

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connection between the two. Furthermore, as early as the writing of the Kalpasutra, the trees sacred to four of the tirthankaras are mentioned. Later texts identify trees specific to the rest. In fact, trees with thrones under them are listed among the pratiharyas of the Jinas. And, in the cosmic pavilion that the texts describe as appearing whenever a Jina is asked to preach, a low throne under a tree is located at the very centre which suggests something of the centrality and importance this imagery holds within Jainism.22
Similarly, in Buddhism the caitya was a well known architectural form used to demarcate areas of sacredness and religious importance. The earliest example of such a structure being used to Buddhist ends was commissioned by the great Mauryan king Asoka who had a fence built around the Bodhi tree at Bodh Baya. By the third century B.C.E. the stupa-caitya became the standard architectural form for free-standing Buddhist structures and with the rise and development of Buddhist iconography the tree maintained its importance in signifying the place and moment of enlightenment. In fact in the Kalingabodhi-Jataka the Buddha actually stipulates that the tree is a suitable symbol for himself and states that the honouring of specific trees is an appropriate way of showing honour to him.23
The caitya was also incorporated into Brahmanical religion over time as this and other aspects of popular religion helped give form to aspects of religious practice we recognize as being part of modern Hinduism. For instance, Coomaraswarmy and others have identified the origins of modern bhakti within the practices of early yaksa worship rather than in the Vedic ritual.24 This shift towards the acceptance of popular religion can be seen in the Brahmanical textual tradition when the descriptions of popular religious practices in the Vedas are compared to those of later texts. For example, in the Vedas we are told of the despised worshippers of the sisna (phallus) whose mere presence could pollute the

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purity of the Vedic ritual; whereas, the Grhyasutra describes the practice of making offerings to yaksas at the end of Vedic studies. 25 Although these examples offer a simplistic glance at two extremes in what was a long and complicated process of interaction and change, they do offer an insight into the changes that occurred in the relationship between Brahmanical and popular religion over the centuries. This gradual shift towards the incorporation of popular religion into Vedism seems to have been occurring as early as the Atharvaveda, which began to equate the term "yaksa" with Brahma, and eventually culminates in the rise of modern Hinduism, wherein Visnu, Siva and the Goddess take precedence over older Vedic deities like Indra and Varuna.2
26
Furthermore, the presence of a first century B.C.E. linga found under a fence tree demonstrates some connection between later Hinduism and early tree-caityas.2 27 This connection is further supported by the importance of tree symbolism in Hinduism. Specifically, the association of particular plants like the tulsi with Visnu and the sal with Siva, as well as the close relationship between trees and shrines suggests a connection between the caitya of popular religion and later Hindu practice.
The preceding paragraphs have worked to establish the importance of the tree, or more specifically the caitya, as being a centre of sacredness providing access to the transcendent posers of spiritual authority. Similarly, the presence of this imagery in all three of these religions points to it having been transmitted to them through the medium of popular religions, of which the textual accounts suggest trees were an important part. The popular origin of tree and caitya imagery become more significant when we look at the material record of the Indus culture among whose steatite seals several representations of trees, both fenced and un-fenced can be found.

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Several of these seals depict trees of various sorts whose forms are not elaborated upon or embellished and which do not seem to be accompanied by any type of built structure (fig.1). These naturalistic portrayals of trees are useful in establishing a contrast with the representations of fenced trees so as to demonstrate that not all trees were set apart in this manner. The trees that are depicted in conjunction with built structural forms are surrounded by what appear to be low, rectangular railings placed close to their respective trunks (fig.2).
Significantly, these fenced trees also occur in conjunction with scenes that appear to depict ritual activity. For instance, in one fragmented example from Harappa we can see a line of individuals with joined hands approaching the base of one of these fenced trees, while in a second example a similar line of people can be seen standing below a tree in which some sort of deity or costume-wearing human can be seen (figs.2,3). In this second image, the tree is not growing out of the type of rectangular construction represented in the first example. Instead, it appears to be emerging from a circular area which clearly surrounds the base of the double-trunked tree. The presence of these barriers enclosing the bases of trees, thereby setting them apart from the surrounding landscape, confronts us with an architectural form that is linked, at the very least, in its design to the later vedika rails which encircle tree-caityas. While it is tempting to identify these Indus architectural forms as having the same religious meanings as later caityas, it is enough to simply recognize that the form of the fenced tree maintained religious potency throughout the centuries.
Similarly, the fact that the figure which stands in this tree has horns and is richly adorned with armlets, the presence of a kneeling individual with outstretched arms, and a large bull situated before the tree, all suggest that this figure has an importance and authority beyond that of ordinary humans. Furthermore, these scenes, which seem to portray some sort of
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w
02
Figure 1: Seal depicting a tree without a fence
(Joshi. Corpus. H 1878. 125.)
Figure 2a, 2b: Seals depicting trees with fences
(Joshi. Corpus. H 137B and H 188B. 210.)
Figure 2c: Seal depicting ritual scene involving a fenced tree
(Joshi. Corpus. H 97a. 190.)

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supplication or devotion to the tree-being, coincide with other images, in which horned figures are shown mastering wild animals and emerging from vegetation, furthering the likelihood that the horned figure represents some sort of deity or supernatural being (figs. 4,5).
Therefore, these images suggest that as early as the time of the Indus culture the notion that enclosed trees were seats in which divine beings could be made manifest was extant. This realization provides a strikingly similar conception of divinity to what we described as being characteristic of the laukika traditions in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. As we have already seen, these same notions of demarcated sacred space and the importance of the tree as a religious image enter all three of India's emergent and developing religious traditions. These images, which long predate textual mention of caityas or yaksas, retain their importance as symbols of religious and spiritual power throughout the centuries despite the changes in ideology and meaning attributed to them.
However, the exact nature or gender of this horneddeity remains a mystery. To this end an exploration of how males and females are depicted in these Indus seals may provided insights into the nature of Indus culture religious practice. For example, in several seals the horned deity wears armlets which are reminiscent of the bracelets worn by the famous bronze image of the dancing girl from Mohenjo-Daro (fig. 6). Similarly, there is a seal from Kalibangan which shows two men standing on either side of a female and threatening each other with spears (fig. 7). I have identified the central image a female due to the rather clear depiction of bracelets on one arm, long hair and long garment which contrasts with the simple undecorated bodies and short hair of the spear bearers whom I have identified as male. Before we can identify this deity as a goddess due to its armlets and long hair, however, we must examine a second type of figure which wears armlets and, in, some cases, has long hair -- the male meditator (fig. 8).
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Figure3: Scene of ritual activity (Huntington. Art. 2.13. 22.)
Figure 5: Horned being in vegitation (Joshi. Corpus. H 179B. 209.)

Figure 4: Horned being and tiger (Huntington. Art. 2.15. 23.)
Figure 6: Bronze dancing girl (Huntington. Art. 2.5. 15)

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A few seals exist which depict a figure seated in what has been identified as a yogic posture and who does not seem to be wearing clothing apart from the previously mentioned jewellery. Interestingly, this enigmatic figure seems to have connections to later religious practices in that his nudity seems to imply an element of asceticism which suggests a link to the sramana traditions, and perhaps more patently to Digambara Jainism. Furthermore, the identification of his stance as a yogic posture seems to further this connection to later ascetic practice. However, before any firm conclusions can be drawn many problematic elements of this seal contradict such a direct assessment. Most notably the presence of other images in which this horned-being is shown engaging in violent actions such as fighting tiger or, as seen on incised copper tablets from Mohenjo-Daro, carrying a bow and arrow complicate any direct identification with the non-violent practices of Jainism (figs.4,9).
Even though the figure's erect phallus, connection to wild animals and meditative posture have been pointed out as demonstrating links to later Saivism, problems exist here as well.28 Most notably, the seals depicting a bull being presented to the horned-deity in a tree show a kneeling figure wearing horns identical to those worn by the figure in the tree (fig.3). This feature of the ritual being depicted makes it difficult to determine whether other seals depicting horned-figures are meant to be representing supernatural beings (like the figure in the tree), or priestly attendants dressed as the deity (like the kneeling figure), and presents us with a type of costuming that has no parallel in the ritual actions of any of the later major religions of India.
Also, some horned deities appear on seals found at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Kalibangan in which the torso of the horned-being emerges from the body of a tiger or other large feline (fig. 10). This close association with large cats makes it tempting to identify the horned-being as female due to

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.
19...
.
ASE
.
Figure 7: Spearbearers and woman
(Joshi. Corpus K 652 311.)
W A
WELL
RR
E
S
SA
Ben
KAMERUESEMEKAR SANKSTATI WWW.WAKASIKIA
ASE DYLANWADI
SURAT
Fig. 8. Horned being in yoga posture
(Joshi. Corpus. 12:M 304A.382)

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.:
:i
.
....
..
Ar
IN
.. ..
.
..
ta
BARAT
UTEN
AME
SYON
Figure 9: Copper plate showing horned being
with a bow (Joshi. Corpus. M 588B 149.)
Figure 10: Homed being/tiger
composite creature (Joshi. Corpus. K 50A. 390.)
.
.
.
.
.
TAR
Figure 11: Svastika (Joshi. Corpus. H 1054. 193.)
Figure 12: Meditatior and snakes (Huntington. At. 2.13 22.)

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the close connections that Durga and Ambika have with tigers and lions in later Hindu and Jain iconography. But ultimately, not even the gender of the horned-being can be securely determined due to the fact that both male and female figures are depicted with long hair and wearing armlets. This overlapping of fashion subverts any attempt to use the figures' clothing to determine gender and thereby gain insights into Indus culture religious practices and discover possible links to later forms of worship.
Indeed, from what has been revealed so far, no single extant religion can claim direct lineage to the Indus culture based on the existing iconographic evidence. Rather, it would appear that all of the religions emerging and solidifying in the fifth century B.C.E. employed imagery whose genesis can be located in the enigmatic practices of the Indus culture. As further support of this conclusion we will now look to other images represented on Indus seals whose forms also occur in the symbolism of later Indian religious practices.
Among the most apparent of these Indus symbols which continues to hold importance over the many centuries is the svastika whose form adorns seals found in all parts of the Indus culture's lands (fig. 11). The early symbol, whose exact meaning still remains unknown beyond the fact that it is one of the mangala or auspicious marks, occurs in positions of sacredness and importance in all three of the religious systems we are exploring. In Jainism this image occurs within the eight-fold worship, aksat puja. In this ritual context, the svastika is drawn to represent the four un-liberated beings (deities, humans, helldwellers and animals and plants).29 It is placed below three dots representing triratna the three jewels of Jainism above which is place a crescent and dot representing the liberated souls. In this way the svastika in Jainism comes to represent those trapped in worldly concerns seeking liberation which, interestingly, provides the svastika a symbolic value that

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equates it with the worldly concerns of laukika from whose bonds triratna provide escape.
Although the svastika does not appear as prominently in the Buddhist context as it does in Jainism, even here there are some cases in which it is employed. Most apparently this symbol occurs occasionally on the exterior of the vedika rails surround early stupas. As Susan Huntington points out, the gate systems around these early Buddhist stupas were often staggered in order to emulate the design of a svastika.30 This symbol was recognized as being an auspicious design signifying and marking the sacredness of the site.
Similarly, in Hinduism the svastika is, and has been, represented adorning the images of gods and goddesses where its function as a mangala, once again, works to signify sacredness. Despite much discussion on its possible links to solar imagery, however, no consensus has been reached as to its specific significance. 31 It is due to the svastika's pervasive presence in many religious systems without any set meaning which strongly suggests that its initial meanings, even by the fifth century B.C.E., had been lost. Its potency, however, as a marker of spiritual authority and sacredness had been remembered. Ultimately, it was in the quest for legitimacy in garnering public support that the svastika was absorbed into these three religious systems where it served to display sacred presence, religious authority, and spiritual power.
The final images from the Indus culture to be explored are those depicting animals which have retained their importance within religious contexts even to the present. I have singled out bulls and snakes as examples because both of these animals are displayed prominently in seals depicting scenes of ritual activity and play a role in contemporary religious practices. Specifically, the bull occurs as part of the procession standing before the horned-being in the tree represented on the seal from Mohenjo Daro that was mentioned earlier (fig. 3). The snakes appear in conjunction with an image of the
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meditating figure in which they flank the central image of the horned-meditator by raising their hoods over two kneeling attendant figures (fig. 12). Therefore, these two creatures in seals attempt to contextualize the animals in some way and provide evidence suggesting that they held important roles in religious and ritual activity.
The bull has long been a central part of Hinduism, and Nandi in particular has played an important role in the imagery and myths of Saivism. Likewise, the importance of the bull has also entered Jainism in the form of Gomukha, the bull-headed yaksa attendant of Rshabhanatha. Interestingly, Gomukha is mentioned in some of the earliest textual descriptions of yaksas in a Jain context which argues for his having entered the religion at a very early date. Though any connection between Nandi, Gomukha, and the images of the Indus seals may be completely circumspect, the fact that the bull is seen as appropriate to and, in some ways, embodying spiritual authority seems to have had ancient origins.
Turning to serpents, it hardly needs to be mentioned that the snakes in these seals resemble in appearance and function the nagas known through later textual and artistic representations. In post fifth century B.C.E. iconography nagas often served to flank or shield central images in both Jain and Buddhist creations, and it is for these functions that the nagas Dharnendra, who protected Parsvanatha, and Mucalinda, who protected Buddha, are the most renowned. Snakes also play an important role within the Hindu myths as seen in the images of Sesha overlooking the reclining Visnu. The image of a figure covered by a serpent with outstreched hoods is found within the physical remains of the Indus culture (2000-1700 B.C.E.) at Mohenji-Daro. It depicts a meditating figure on a pedestal flanked by two kneeling attendants who are in turn being shielded by the hoods of enormous snakes, (Fig. 12). So in the image of the flanking, protective serpent we have identified another ancient image whose meanings change to suit the Jain,
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Buddhist or Hindu tradition while its initial form, a form taken form the images of the Indus culture, remains intact.
Conclusion
The images of the Indus culture are present in all of the iconography of the emergent religious traditions of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. Furthermore, the evidence provided by Buddhist texts, Jain writers and Vedic accounts tell of a widespread popular religion existing alongside these more formalized practices. That this popular tradition, referred to as laukika by Somadeva, underwent a long period of interaction, influence and borrowing with Jainism, Buddhism and Brahmanism is further attested by both textual and physical evidence. As these religions vied for public support, popular notions of religiosity were imported, converted and adapted to fit their new religious contexts.
Therefore, having established the shared influence of the laukika traditions on all three of these religious systems, it becomes understandable how ancient imagery known in the remains of the Indus culture could have entered them while retaining its form but being given new meanings. Specifically, the images of the tree-caitya, the meditator, the svastika, bull and snake retained their potency as images of spiritual and religious authority while developing new meanings over the centuries appropriate to the new contexts in which they appeared.
Ultimately, due to the lack of physical or textual remains left us by the popular traditions in India, as well as the absence of readable texts from the Indus culture, the precise relationship between the laukika traditions and those of the Indus culture cannot be compared. It is clear, however, that this influential, popular system of beliefs practiced by peasants and kings kept alive the imagery and symbolism of the Indus culture, making them accessible to all the traditions that
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followed and who, in recognizing the power of these images, sought to make them their own. Jainism was not alone in receiving the inheritance bequeathed it by the Indus culture, but this shared antiquity does nothing to lessen the power of the images or in any way cloud the magnificent and divergent uses to which they were put. O
Endnotes
Somadeva. Upasakadhyayana. (Varanasi and New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1964) Karika 477. LU.P. Shah. "Yaksa Worship in Early Jaina Literature." Journal of the Oriental Institute, M.S. Universisty of Baroda, Baroda. vol. III, no. 1. (September, 1953) p.60.
S.P. Gupta. "Jaina Art Vis-a-Vis Harappan Art." in Jain Art and Architecture. R.C. Dwivedi ed. (Jaipur: Centre for Jain Studies, 1980) p.9-10. 4 M.N. Deshpande. "The Background and Tradition." in Jain Art and Architecture A. Ghosh ed. vol. 1. (New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1974) p. 20-21.
Gupta. "Jaina Art." p. 7-8.
Padmanabh S. Jaini. "Is There a Popular Jainism?" in the Assembly of Listeners. M. Carrithers and C. Humphrey eds. (New York: Cambridge UP, 1991) p. 188.
For a recounting of such tales see: Shah. "Yaksa Worship." p.58-60, 62-64; Ram Nath Misra. Yaksa Cult and Iconography. (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1981) p. 46-48.
Misra. Yaksha Cult. p. 48-49; Jose Pereira. Monolithic Jinas: The Iconography of the Jain Temples of Ellora. (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977) p.9-10. 'Lawrence A. Babb. "Giving and Giving Up: The Eightfold Worship among Svetambar Murtipujak Jains." Journal of Anthropological Research. vol. XLIV. no. 1. (Spring, 1988) p.73. 10 Misra. Yaksha Cult. p.50.
Shah. "Yaksa Worship" p.58; Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 196. Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 196-197.
Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 197. 14 Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 194
Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 188. 10 Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p.197. 1/ Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p. 197. 18 U.P. Shah. "Iconography." in Jaina Art and Irchitecture. A. Chosh ed. vol. III. (New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1975) p.481, 19 The Jataka: Or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births. E.B. Cowell ed. vol. III. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981) p.15. 20 Jaini. "Popular Jainism?" p.193Shah. "Yaksas Worship. p.59-60; Misra. Yaksha Cult. p. 46-48. 21 Shah. "Yaksa Worship." p.66. 2 For more on the connection between Jain and popular forms of worship sce: Shah. "Yaksas Worship." p.77. For more on pratiharyas see:; Shah. "Yaksa Worship." p.66; Pereira, Monolithic. p.54,43. 25 The Jataka. Cowell ed. vol. IV. p. 142.
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24 Ananda Coomaraswamy. "Yaksas," in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. LXXX no. VI. (May, 1928) this is a brief discussion of the rise of bhakti in relation to yaksa worship and refers to a statue in Pawaya of the yaksa Manibhadra which is inscribed and dedicated by his manibhadrabhaktas 25 Coomaraswamy. "Yaksas." p.3-5. 26 For a full discussion of this see: Ananda Coomaraswamy. "The Yaksas of the Vedas and Upanisads." The Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society. vol. XXVII, no. 4. (1938) p.232-240. 27 Shah. "Iconography." p.482. 20 For a further explanation of the evidence and a discussion of the problems see: Doris Srinivasan. "Unhinging Siva from the Indus Civilization." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. no. 1. (1984) p. 77-88. 29 Babb. "Giving and Giving Up." p.72. 30 Susan Huntington. The Ancient Art of India. (New York: Weatherhill, 1985) p.62. 31 Benjamin Rowland. The Art and Architecture of India: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain. (New York: Penguin Books, 1984) p. 79.
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The Jina Malli: Jainism and the Spirituality
of Women
Katherine Anne Harper Loyola Marymount University
This article is about women, specifically religious women of ancient India, the land of seekers, saints and renouncers. Throughout India's history, there were countless women who participated in spiritual disciplines even to the point of joining groups of renouncers who engaged in severe modes of conduct. Such women have remained countless because, for the most part, they were anonymous. To a certain degree, their anonymity may have been a matter of choice. Writing on the subject of women's spirituality in contemporary India, Linda Johnsen observes:
[M]ost of the women saints remain with their families, purifying themselves by serving others. Every morning before their family awakens, they sit before the altars in their homes, worshipping and praying. They don't care for name and fame. Even the people in the next village do not know who they are.
There is, however, a growing body of research on the subject of women's roles in the religions of India in the first millennium B.C.E. that makes clear female anonymity was the result of a gender bias that permeated Indian society at large. It
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was a prejudice that accelerated as the millennium passed and one that eventually resulted not only in the relative invisibility of women in the realm of spiritual matters, but in a widespread bias against permitting them minimal, if any, religious authority. There can be little doubt that their isolation was imposed and that there was, in fact, a steady decline in their religious status traceable from a time in India's pre-history when women may well have been the primary religious authority. Our purpose here is threefold: 1) to review recent theories on Harrapan religion that suggest women were the primary focus and probable authority in religious matters; 2) to consider the role of women in religious matters early in the first millennium B.C.E., and follow their increasingly diminished status as the millennium drew to a close; 3) to seek reasons for the spiritual disenfranchisement of women and their general invisibility in light of the textual accounts of the Jina Malli, the sole woman in any Indian religious tradition to attain the status of a pure enlightened being (tirthankara) equal to all other great realized teachers, including the other twentythree tirthankaras and Gautama Buddha.
Harappan Culture
The Harappans were a peaceful people; the fact that no weapons have ever been found in the excavations suggests that they lived in a world devoted to non-violence.2 Archaeological evidence shows as well that the Harappan cities were inhabited by a racially homogenous group. At all levels of the digs, "a biological continuity extending over some five millennia is demonstrable."3 Recent scholarship on the geographical origin of the Harappans traces them to the Neolithic culture of Southern Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan.4 Studies of Harappan skeletal remains contradict theories linking them to a later influx of people from the Indian peninsula or the Aryan invaders. 5 We know now, also, that the Harappan
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culture was not destroyed by invasion; there were no sudden demographic shifts. Skeletal remains exhibit, in fact, signs of malarial infections; undoubtedly an illness endemic in the region and possibly the "direct by-product of agricultural progress. "6 In other words, the demise of the culture early in the second millennium B.C.E. was due to a weakened population rather than outright assault.
New light has been shed on the origins of the IndoAryans also. Excavations in the Russian and Kazakh steppes have unearthed remnants of a Bronze Age culture that "practiced rituals similar to those described in the Rig Veda, but 1,000 years earlier."7 Found in graves and interred with the dead were bronze weapons, fragments of bronze head armour and the earliest-known chariots. The chariot and weapons, designed for war, belonged to the Sintashta-Petrovka culture that dated from 2100-1700 B.C.E.; there can be little doubt that the forebearers of the later Vedic culture came from the northern steppes and were a people far more aggressive than the Harappans. These findings seem to confirm that the IndoAryans, carrying bronze weapons and driving chariots, migrated to the subcontinent after the Indus culture had peaked. Their entry into India may well have been peaceful, however, they introduced religious elements distinct from those of the indigenous populations that inaugurated tensions which persist to the present day.
The religiosity of Harappan culture is not disputed. Who the primary deity was, however, has been debated since the time of the original excavations earlier in this century. Generally, scholars have concurred with the views of the initial excavators that the numerous terra-cotta female figurines found in the Indus Valley digs were relics from a fertility cult of a Mother Goddess. In general, the figurines have attracted little notice in the studies of specialists; the minimal attention given the small clay females disguises an unvoiced assumption

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that they were part of a "Little Tradition," folk figurines important only to women.
Most of the attention has focused on the steatite seals found at Harappan sites, the artistry of the seals has led many to assume that there was a second stratum of religion, one that focused on a male deity and was more sophisticated, or part of the "Great Tradition."9 At the centre of the controversy are the so-called "proto-Shiva" seals which at first were believed to represent a male figure (wearing bullhorns and seated in a yogic posture) and the so-called "Deity in a Tree" seals. In 1964, Herbert Sullivan was the first to put forth a new hypothesis in which he identified the figures in yogic postures as well as the tree deities as being female; he called her "The Mistress of the Animals."10 Soon after, Alf Hiltebeitel identified the horns on the various seal figures as belonging to a buffalo, not a bull." While conceding that the deity in the tree sporting the buffalo horns was female, he identified the yogic figure, nonetheless, as a "Buffalo-man" and postulated that the Buffalo-man and Tree Goddess were the ancestors of the Goddess Durga and the buffalo demon Mahisha of later Hinduism. A few years later, Asko Parpola also identifies the horns as belonging to a buffalo and drew conclusions similar to those of Hiltebeitel. 12
In 1987, Shubhangana Atre published a study on Harappan religion that was based on, not just the artefacts, but their location in the digs. On the religion of the Harappan culture, Atre reconstructed a pantheon whose main deity was the Great Goddess of animals and vegetation and, in doing so, rejected any notion of a male divinity.14 Of the various images in yogic posture on the seals, Atre states, "we are now convinced that basically they feature one and the same deity...a female deity." 15 The seated female deity sporting horns was the same deity who was represented on the seals displaying the "Tree Deity." Both types of seals exhibited a Goddess who had dominion over all plants and animals. The terra-cotta images of
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females, Atre postulated, were representations of vestal virgins who guarded the sacred fires in Harappan households. 16 The vestal virgins formed the order of priestesses who served the Goddess.
My own studies of Harappan culture have led me to the conclusions that, 17 in large part, concur with Sullivan and Atre; the all-important deity of Harappan civilization was the Great Goddess who manifested in various epiphanies related to plants and animals. She was the wellspring of all life, the source of abundant and continual supply. Harappan culture was first and foremost an agrarian society. As is typical in early farming cultures, the fertility of the earth was linked with feminine fecundity. The Great Goddess gave birth by herself, through parthenogenesis, and the mystery of the Earth's creation was mirrored in the life-creating capacities of women. Not only had women domesticated plants and initiated horticulture, 18 they were linked with the harvests in religious mystery that connected them to the origin of life and its corollary death. Undoubtedly, the Goddess of Harappan civilization was served by ministering priestesses who were lined to her by virtue of their biology. Those processes that led to the birth of offspring (sex and menses) could well have been regarded as the source of mystical states as well. In a study on the relationship between shamanism and menses Marilyn Nagy notes, "It is not the physical child which is conceived at menstruation, was so long thought, but the spiritual child. The figure of the shamaness appears in the legends of women at the menses because she represents the inherent possibility of the woman not only to bear children, but also to understand, to teach, and to heal." 19
Harappan culture had much in common with other contemporary cultures far to the north and the west. A comparative study of the Neolithic finds of old European cultures and Harappan culture reveals surprising correspondence: virtually all of the patterns and symbols
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identified and deciphered by Marija Gimbutas in her pivotal studies are found in the early civilization of the subcontinent.20 One particularly striking parallels is that no weapons except hunting implements were found among grave goods in Europe until c.4500-4300 B.C.E.21 The Neolithic cultures in old Europe and the Indus River Valley were formulated on agrarian-based, highly-organized communities that worshipped an omnipotent Goddess. Gimbutas was able to extract from her data a revealing picture of the life of the peoples of old Europe:
Summing (up) archaeological, historical, linguistic, and religious evidence, we visualize Old European society organized around a theacratic, communal temple community, and a higher female status in religious life. This was an endogamous society guided by a highly respected elder -- Great Mother of the clan and her brother or uncle, with a council of women as a governing body. The structure was matrilineal, with succession to leadership and inheritance within the female line. 22
There existed a gender balance in the old European communities; partnership was the prevailing model. The archaeological finds do not "suggest any imbalance between the sexes or a subservience of one sex to the other. They suggest, instead, a condition of mutual respect."23
Although Harappan culture may not have been linked to the civilizatons of old Europe in actual fact, they nevertheless bear some systemic and structural similarities. We may be able to postulate a type of theacratic socialism as the mode of organizing society. Studies of Indus Valley skeletons and teeth demonstrate little or no difference in the diets of the inhabitants. In other words, the distribution of food was equitable. Harappan elites maintained a social order in such a way as "to avoid dietary and pathological privations so osten
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found among the urban proletariat in other stratified high cultures. "24 While we may not be able to determine many of the details of the social stratification of India's earliest civilization, the archaeological documentation informs us on the social history of a culture that was strikingly similar to those described by Gimbutas, i.e. a peaceful, endogamous, agrarian society that was equitably governed in the name of the Great Goddess. During the second millennium B.C.E., the declining Harappan civilization was supplanted with a social construct that was radically different, one based on inequality and privileged position for males. Likewise, the religious paradigm of the Great Goddess was replaced by a new one befitting the warrior race known as the Indo-Aryans.
As the Indo-Aryans settled in India, they formulated the caste system in an effort to bring about the disenfranchisement of the older indigenous order. There can be little doubt that war was introduced on the subcontinent after the Indo-Aryan entry into India. War was a direct corollary of maintenance of the caste system. The glorification of war as portrayed in India's great epic literature was a literary device justifying and supporting caste distinctions. To consolidate the power of the new ruling elites, priestesses/shamanesses of the older order were stripped of spiritual authority, women were stripped of their decision-making powers, 25 and Brahman priests exercised the dominating religious authority as they spread out across the subcontinent. We cannot know if the Indo-Europeans exerted physical force in an attempt to demolish the visible signs of the religion of the Goddess and her priestesses, but generally, their actions took a more insidious form of attack by denigrating a woman's body and specifically her powers of generation -- menses and sexuality. The older religion of the Goddess was attacked by reacting against women rather than allowing them to be active participants in their own right.26 In this manner, the Indo-Aryan male began a process in which the inbred
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assurances of male superiority -- hygienic, emotional, moral and intellectual -- were taken for granted.
A Millennium of Usurpation
The earliest literary evidence concerning the position of women in the religious milieu are references in the Rig Veda to a number of female scholars, mystics and poets. Portions of the Vedas, in fact, were composed by women; no less than twenty female seers and authors were cited.27 In the early stages of Vedic religions, women were accorded an important place; they seem to have participated on a near equal footing in ritual sacrifices and in theological discussions. Their spiritual or mystical propensities were neither stifled nor diminished; it was "an era of unsurpassed advantage and opportunity for women."28 At least one reason why women enjoyed such status is that they were regarded as an integral part of a hierogamy in which marriage was a requirement for both genders. Unmarried people of either gender were ineligible for Vedic sacrifices. 29 The wife was a partner (ardhangini) to her husband in religious rites and, at times, was able to perform sacrifices herself. 30 Participation in Vedic rites necessitated an education in that the married woman became an intellectual companion and philosophical guide (sahadharmini) to her husband. 31 Educated women were divided into two classes: the brahmavadinis, i.e. life-long students of theology and philosophy who learned Vedic hymns, prayers and sacramental manuals, and sadyodvahas, i.e. women who studied until the time of marriage. It is difficult to determine, given the lack of available date, if the brahmavadinis remained single throughout life, or if they in any way were connected with the tradition of renunciation of family life and worldly pursuits.
There seem to be no direct Vedic references to single women who chose a life of renunciation and celibacy; but there were examples of wives who joined their husbands as
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renouncers as in the case of Yajnavalkya's spouse, Maitreyi.3 32 There may have been women renouncers belonging to a special class of women teachers who were so prominent that a new term, upadhyayanis, was coined to designate its members.33 They formed a vital, intellectual segment of the population early in the millennium:
[A] broad class of female teachers...was prevalent throughout society, and it is probable that teaching was the most common profession open to women. With teaching, a woman could become economically selfreliant and, with a wide range of subjects to offer (grammar, poetry and literature, in addition to theology and philosophy) she could attract a broad range of students, male as well as female. 34
The well-regarded status of women in Vedic religion reached an apex with the female philosopher, Gargi, who engaged in a pivotal debate recorded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 600 B.C.E.). One of the foremost thinkers of her day, she insisted on rationalistic analyses of experience.35 By the close of the sixth century B.C.E., however, the choice of pursuits open to women born into Vedic society was being diminished. In subsequent centuries, the position of women was so drastically altered that all women were regarded as equal to only the lowest caste and unfit for exposure to the sacred texts and from most religious responsibilities. The Manusmriti is unequivocal on the inferior status of women, and gives reasons for their lack of social and religious acceptability.37 Manu's indictments heralded the final phase in the disenfranchisement of women that resulted in such cruel practices as sati.
36
The Brahman priests had phobic concerns about ritual purity that helped to create and to sustain the caste system and male domination. The pristine status of male Brahmans was

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maintained at all costs, even if it resulted in banishing their wives and daughters from contact with them. Women, regardless of caste, became untouchables during the time of menses, enduring social stigmatization and isolation. In the early history of Brahmanism, the impurity and confinement were only for the time of actual bleeding, 38 but what once may have been a brief period of isolation eventually grew to have greater ramifications and women were unanimously relegated to the lowest status unfit for exposure to religious texts and rituals no matter if they issued blood or not. In India as elsewhere in the world, the more war-like and authoritarian a society became, the stronger was its menstrual taboos. Paranoid emphasis was placed on women's "corrupting and debilitating influence and men's need to over power, dominated and devalue her."39 Vedic concerns about menstrual taboos had influence in other socio-religious spheres; soon Buddhist and Jain male theologians concerned themselves with the taboos. 40
It is interesting to note here that both of the major heterodox, anti-Vedic religions, Jainism and Buddhism demonstrated similar, albeit less cruel, tendencies with regard to the position of spiritual and intellectual women. Although the female followers of Mahavira and Shakyamuni were allowed to become nuns and renounce earthly attachment, they, nonetheless, were regarded as being subservient to the male practitioner of the faiths. While both religions eschewed the Brahmanic caste system, at the same time they insisted that even the most elderly or spiritually advanced nuns were subservient to any and all monks regardless of age or station and, in doing so, they created a system of sex-based classes within their communities:
[Allthough Buddhist and Jaina thinkers are willing to reject the notion of a hierarchical social order, the power of the patriarchal doctrine of male supremacy in all matter proved harder for them to escape. Indeed,
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with their obsessive concern with renunciation, withdrawal from the secular social universe, and avoidance of the sensual life, the texts and sermons of Buddhism and Jainism often stress so virulently negative a view of women -- particularly the female anatomy -- as to make even the gynophobic elements in most Hindu texts seem rather mild.41
Time and space preclude a lengthy analysis of the roles and contributions of women in Buddhism. The reader is referred to but a few of the many excellent studies on this subject.42 Suffice to say, Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, at first did not permit the ordination of women.43 From the time of his first sermon at Sarnath, he accepted monks, but not women-as-nuns. His original intention was to found an order of celibate monks for the propagation of his teachings. 44 In time, male and female lay followers joined his sangha and reluctantly, after some five years of preaching,45 Buddha, submitting to social pressures, finally allowed women to renounce their earthly ties and become nuns.46
Jainism, the older of the two enduring sramanic religions, historically has included both nuns and laywomen as a vital part of the community. The Jaina order of nuns predated that of the Buddhists by centuries. 47 The earliest historical references to female Jaina renouncers were connected to the twenty-third tirthankara, Parshvanatha, who lived during the ninth century B.C.E. There are, however, mythological references to at least two Jaina women attaining enlightenment or salvation long before Parshvanatha. The first was Marudevi, the mother of the first tirthankara named Rshabhanatha, who upon seeing her enlightened son, attained the highest spiritual state of kevalajnana, she herself entered into samadhi and passed away. 48 Paul Dundas writes, "it is particularly noteworthy that according to the Svetambaras it is a woman, Marudevi, the mother of Rsabha, who has the distinction of

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being the first person of this world age to achieve liberation. "49 Yet another example of a woman attaining the highest spiritual level is found in the story of the Jina Malli who, according to the Svetambara sect, chose the life of a renouncer as a prelude to kevalajnana. The myths concerning Malli will be addressed momentarily; rather, let us return to the tirthankara Parshvanatha and reconstruct what we can of the role of women in his order.
Jaina texts suggest that, at least as early as the ninth century B.C.E., women with a high degree of spiritual commitment and aptitude far outnumbered men with similar inclinations and abilities. According to the Kalpasutra, Parshvanatha divided his community into four parts: monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. A woman named Pushpacula was placed at the head of the women's order. 50 Furthermore, the Kalpasutra records that the four-part sangha consisted of 16,000 monks, 38000 nuns, 164,000 laymen, and 327,000 laywomen.SI While the authenticity of the actual numbers may be questionable, what is immediately striking is the ratio of women to men. Renouncing women outnumbered the number of renouncing men by more than two to one. The sheer numbers of women alone indicate a religion in which the religiosity of women was respected and female renunciation was encouraged. Concerned with the welfare of all humankind, it was Parsvanatha who first offered an alternative to Vedic exclusives and, in doing so, afforded women the same opportunities as men and affirmed that women were capable of attaining the highest religious goal.52 The great teacher stressed the importance of four vows known as the Law of the Four Restraints (chaturyama-dharma) that most likely involved abstaining from four types of activities: injury, nontruthfulness, taking what is not given, and having possessions. the effectiveness of Parshvanatha's teaching is measured in the number of followers that he led to enlightenment -- some 2,000 ascetic women and 1,000 men.53

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From the evidence of the Sutrakritanga and other Jaina scriptures, we learn that the followers of Parsvanatha lived in the area of Magadha, the same region as the parents of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and final tirthankara. Mahavira's royal parents were counted among the followers of the religion propagated by Parsvanatha. 54 Like Shakyamuni, Mahavira was a ksatriya and son of a king. Born in the sixth century B.C.E., Mahavira's teachings stressed social reform by demolishing the barriers of caste, creed, tribe, and race; 55 and to Parshvanatha's Law of Four Restraints, he added a fifth stipulation for his renouncing followers celibacy 56 At the time of Mahavira's death, according to the Kalpasutra, his community of followers consisted of 14,000 monks, 36,000 nuns, 159,000 laymen, and 318,000 laywomen.57 Recorded also are the numbers of male and female followers to achieve salvation during Mahavira's lifetime. There were 1,400 women in contrast to 700 men.58 Here too, we are informed of disproportionate ratios in which women's numbers exceed those of the men by roughly two to one. That such ratios were recorded form both Parshvanatha's and Mahavira's sanghas is very significant. The ratios represent a time in history when the greater interest, dedication and aptitude of women for spiritual matters was recognized. It seems that Mahavira allowed women into the order from the beginning of his teaching with Arya Canadana, Mahavira's first woman disciple, subsequently becoming the head of his order of nuns.
--
are
The large numbers and references to women remnants of an ascetic movement which, on the whole, defended egalitarian attitudes. In the years immediately following the time of Mahavira, women were permitted the freedom to exercise options which included entering the order and the promise of reaching the state of bliss. For a time they too were allowed to wander freely and teach in what was a relatively liberal society. Like their male counterparts, Jain women renunciants never established communities in fixed

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locations, but followed the ideal of Mahavira to never live more than one day in the same village. 59 Eventually, however, nuns were made to become more dependent upon their male colleagues' authority. Regulations were devised that stipulated where the women were allowed to beg, and what implements they could own or use. Stricter regulation of their movements was justified by the wish to avoid all objects and conditions of life that could endanger the vow of chastity 60 In the early centuries of Mahavira's order, there was a liberal attitude regarding co-educational teaching. Situations in which women were the disciples of monks, and monks were the disciples of senior nuns have been recorded. 61
Unfortunately, the liberalism toward females that characterized the early centuries of Jainism was eventually influenced by the pan-Indian prejudices against women. The first literary references to the final occlusion of women from places of authority date to the middle of the second century C.E., but they are the product of a branch that had taken place around 300 B.C.E.62 The Digambara acharya Kundakunda, in his work Sutraprabhrita, openly declared women unfit for emancipation.63 Among other assertions, he stated that women have no purity of mind because their menstrual flow was an anxiety-provoking liability. He averred that total nudity was a requirement for liberation and, because women must wear clothing, they are exempt from attaining liberation. Such proclamations mark the culmination of a long period of struggle by those with reactionary attitudes who sought to limit the role of Jaina women, and discredit their spiritual aspirations or achievements. In doing so, Kundakunda and his circle succumbed to the social pressures outside the Jaina community,64 or in other words, these leaders of the Jaina community adopted the pan-Indian views denigrating women. Such attitudes between the Svetambaras and Digambaras have raised the debate on the issues of nudity. Important to women particularly, the matter of the nakedness of renouncers served
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the focal-point in the Digambara argument against the enlightenment of women. Female nudity was not allowed for obvious reason; naked women were in danger of rape, and more importantly from the male point of view, female nudity posed a serious temptation to the monks endangering the fifth vow of celibacy. Constant warnings blackened the character of women in order to warn lustful monks to keep aloof from feminine charms that might overcome their reason. 65 Dundas notes, "amidst the welter of denuciation of women and their evil desire to lure men away from the path, there seems to be only one significant scriptural warning to women of the dangers of male sexuality."66 Ultimately, it was the issue of nakedness that led to the Digambara claim that women lacked the adamantine body necessary for liberation. The debate as to whether or not clothing impinged upon the ability to achieve final release dated to the time when the followers of Parshvanatha merged with the followers of Mahavira. Parshvanatha allowed the wearing of an under and upper garment, but Mahavira permitted no clothes whatsoever.67 That Parshvanatha allowed his monks and nuns to wear clothing did not preclude them from being free of entanglements and the bonds of passions and possessions. Parshvanatha and his followers were considered Nirgranthas (Niganthas), i.e. "unfettered ones, ones "without any ties."68 They maintained that it was not the clothing per se, but the attachment to clothing, that was a spiritual impediment.
11
as
Malli
Little is known of the woman who according to the Svetambaras is reported to have been the nineteenth tirthankara. Born into a ksatriya family, her father was Kumbha, King of Mithila (modern Bihar). Legend has it that she was so exceedingly beautiful that many kings sought her hand in marriage, but her father, however, refused all suitors.

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They in turn felt insulted and waged war on Kumbha. Horrified by the bloodshed, the princess Malli convinced her father to invite all the kings to the palace. When the warring kings entered the royal chambers, they were confronted not only by Malli, but by a golden life-like stature of the princes. Malli proceeded to open a lid on the statue's head to expose rotting garbage. To wit she explained, that like the sculpture, beneath her own exterior there was nothing but fouled and filthy matter. She then made a solemn vow to renounce all worldly pleasures in order to take up the life of an ascetic. It was at that moment that she became enlightened (kevalajnana). Her royal admirers, duly shamed and remorseful, then realized that true happiness lay in meditation and the performance of austerities, and they, like Malli, renounced the world for a life of asceticism.69 The Digambaras claim that the nineteenth tirthankara was not a woman, but a man named Mallinatha who lived out an ordinary career as a male Jina. 70
The Jina Malli was a central figure in later polemical debates between the Digambara and Svetambara traditions. According to Svetambara legend, Malli, in a former life, was a king named Mahabali. He undertook a vow of renunciation along with seven other Jaina mendicants with the understanding that they would perform their ascetic practices as a group progressing at the same rate. The customary list of austerities included fasting:
Mahabali was by nature deceitful and constantly found excuses (such as ill health) to skip meals and thus broke the agreement by deviously accumulating a larger number of fasts than his friends. His conduct was otherwise faultless, and as a consequence of his great exertions in leading a holy life he generated such karmic forces as would yield him rebirth as a would-be Jina 71

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What is so fascinating about the story is the thinlydisguised assertion that the one small conceit harboured by Mahabali, despite powerful motives and ascetic exertions, resulted in his enduring one last life as a woman. On the subject of Mahabali's ambitions to observe longer fasts, Nalini Balbir writes, "This had a double effect: it explained the rebirth as a woman (because the ascetic resorted to perfidy and lie) but also the destiny as a future Jina since asceticism is recorded among the twenty causes leading to Jinahood." Hence, Malli was the exception to the karmic rules of rebirth that a Jina must not be a female and that a woman is not endowed with
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samyaktva (the proper view of reality) at birth.73 It must be noted that Jains, regardless of the sect, believe that human vices such as cheating and deceit cause rebirth as a woman. It cannot be determined if Malli was a purely mythological character or if she was an actual historical person, but there is every possibility that Malli was a real person, or at least, was representative of the various women who reached kevalajnana. The story of Malli then became unique and a religous tradition has been recorded that female spirituality results in the state of bliss. The tale of her previous life as a religious, but slightly dubious, ascetic king was probably an attempt to obfuscate or diffuse any notions that females had spiritual powers. While Digambaras refuted the story of Malli altogether, Svetambaras equivocated by explaining that becoming a tirthankara for a woman was unusual and hence, it was described as one of the ten unexpected things. 74
The ambiguous positions concerning the stories of Malli and the debates on clothing can be viewed as attempts to obscure and deny a woman's powers, rights and authority, not just in religious matters, but in all aspects of life. She was denied the opportunity to make her own choices. At the heart of the story of Malli's enlightenment is the remembrance of a time, perhaps dating to the pre-Vedic period, when the

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religious authority of women was unquestionable. The previous life-story of Malli as a dubious male ascetic was appended later in order to diffuse the impact of her spiritual success. The subtexts of the stories of Malli and the debates on women are clear. They are disguised attempts to destroy an older belief system focusing on the Great Goddess in which the female ability to create life within her body was sacred and the source of profound mystical power.
Conclusion
Many reasons have been proposed for the usurpation of women's rights and authority in Indian society and religion.75 A review of them all is beyond the scope of the present study. Here we are concerned with renouncing as it relates to female fertility. Perhaps the outgrowth of a mysticism already known in the pre-Vedic period, the tradition of renouncing family and worldly ties seems to have been the direct result of a need to sustain a trance-like state for indefinite periods of time. As the fashion to renounce became more popular in the late Vedic period. women's religious authority diminished despite the fact that women participated equally (or doubly so in the case of the Jains) in the renouncing traditions. Undoubtedly, one reason for the paradox is that renouncing and fertility cults are ontological opposites.
Renouncing was the process of closing out and closing down; a process of decreasing. The very nature of renouncing laid stress upon the avoidance of family ties, emotional bonds and sexuality, or indeed any pleasures of the senses -- all of which were associated with women.76 The old fertility religion of the goddess centred on reproduction and the "larger realm of increase."77 Again, both were associated with women. Thus, we can see how such ontological opposites would have resulted in dynamic tensions between the human needs for separation and joining. The disparate ontologies could not be resolved
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and, with the developing notions of samsara and karma in the late Vedic age, the pressures were mounting to find a solution to the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The necessity for resolution found an outlet in the targeting of women, the agents of birth. Over time, a stereotype developed that depicted women as being mentally, morally, hygienically and biologically inferior.
While women appear to have been active in India's major religious movements (Vedism, Buddhism and Jainism) early in the first millennium B.C.E., their participation was eclipsed as the millennium drew to a close. Eventually all three religions imposed constraints limiting the spiritual authority of women. The Jaina Svetambaras, however, compromised women the least. The fact that the Svetambaras have maintained an active body of women renouncers from an early time in their history to the present may indicate the survival of an ancient socio-religious paradigm in which women's religiosity was heralded. O
Endnotes
Linda Johnsen, Daughters of the Goddess: the Women Saints of India (St. Paul, Minnesota: Yes International Publishers, 1994) p.1. - Michael Tobias sees Harrapan culture as the birthplace of the cult of ahimsa and perhaps the roots of Jainism itself. See: Life Force: the World of Jainism (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991) p.21.
Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, "A Reassessment of the Theories of Racial Origins of the People of the Indus Valley Civilization from Recent Anthropological Data", Studies in the Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology of South Asia, Kenneth A.R. Kennedy and Gregory L. Possehl, eds. (New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., 1984) p. 102. 4 Asko Parpola, "The Encounter of Religions in India 2000-1000 B.C.," Temenos 12 (1976), p.28 SIbid.
Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, "Skeletal Biology: When Bones Tell Tales," Archaeology, 34/1 (Jan/Feb. 1981) pp. 17-24.
David W. Anthony and Nikolai B. Vinogradov, "Birth of the Chariot," Archaeology, (Mar./Apr. 1995) pp. 36-41.
8 Ibid
The gender bias is subtle, but nonetheless obvious. The unexamined assumption and line of extrapolation about the "proto-Siva" seals consist of the following: A male god, versed in yoga and meditation was the harbinger of a tradition of renouncing and, ergo, the cornerstone of India's great religious tradition. Note, for example, the following typical viewpoint: "it is the

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Renouncer, more than the Brahman, who has been the principal architect of Indian classical culture, and has imprinted on it his own special outlook, thereby, transmitting his own bias to the Great Tradition (italics are mine)." See: Richard Lannoy, The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society (London: Oxford University Press, 1975) p.210. One is reminded of Mary Daly's critique of Mircea Eliade's distinctions between sacred and profane as being a distinction between male and female activities, i.e. male is equated with sacred and female is equated with profane. See: Gyn/ Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1978) pp.44-51. 10 Herbert P. Sullivan, "A Re-examination of the Religion of the Indus Civilization," History of Religions 4 (1964) pp. 115-125.
Alf Hiltebeitel, "The Indus Valley 'Proto-Siva' Reexamined Through Reflections on the Goddess, the Buffalo and the Symbolism of the Vahanas," Anthropos 73 (1978) pp. 767-797 12 Asko Parpola, "New Correspondences Between Harappan and New Easter Glyptic Art," South Asian Archaeology (Copenhagen: Scandanvian Institute of Asian Studies, 1981) pp. 176195. 13 Shubhangana Atre, The Archetypal Mother: A Systemic Approach to Harappan Religion (Pune: Ravish Publishers, 1987) pp.20-21 14 Ibid., p.191. 15 Ibid., p.194. 16 Ibid., p.187.
The findings of my study were first reported in a paper, "Ancient Goddesses: The Bimbutas Model as Applied to India: A Preliminary Study," delivered at East Meets West: A Conference on Comparative Philosophy Celebrating teh Platinum Jubilee Year of the University of Mysore, June 1991. A published version is forthcoming. 10 Margaret Ehenberg, Women in Prehistory (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989) pp. 77-90. 19 Marilyn Nagy, "Mestruation and Shamanism," Betwixt and Between: Patterns of Masculine and Feminine Initiation (La Salle, Illinois 12/18/94 Open Court, 1987) p.243. 20 Marija Gimbutas. Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe 7000-3500 B.C. (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1974); The Language of the Goddess (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1989); The Civilization of the Goddess (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991). 21 Gimbutas, Civilization, p.352. 22 Ibid., p.349. 23 Ibid., p.xi. 24 Kennedy, "Skeletal Biology," p.24. 23 Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishing, 1988), p.91. 26 Janice D. Willis, "Nuns and Benefactresses: The Role of Women in the Development of Buddhism," in Women, Religion, and Social Change, Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly, eds. (Albany, NY:State University of New York Press, 1985) p. 77. 27 Johnsen, 9; and A.S. Altekar, The Position of Women in Hindu Civilization (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987) p.10. 20 Ellison Banks Findly, "Gargi at the King's Court: Women and Philosophic Innovation in Ancient India," Women, Religion, and Social Change, Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly, eds. (Albany, N.Y.:State University of New York Press, 1985) p.38. 29 Altekar, pp. 31,343. 30 Findly, pp. 38-39. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. p.46. There were during that period, however, female renunciates belonging to some sixty-two heresies and wandering communities. In the Vedic tradition, women renouncers were viewed as loose women and equated with prostitutes and street performers. See: Susan Murcott,
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The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentary on the Therigatha (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991) pp. 39-41. 33 Altekar, p.13. 34 Findly, p.40. 35 Ibid., p.52 30 IX, 18; IV, pp. 205-206; XI, pp. 36-37. The laws of Manu, Georg Buhler, trans. (New York: Dover Publications, 1969). 3/ Ibid., II, pp. 213-215; IX, pp. 17-20. 38 Altekar, pp. 194-196. 39 Monica Sjoo and Barabara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1987). p.193. 40 In Buddhism, to be born into a woman's body was considered a cause for special suffering on account of menstruation, childbirth and menopause and, therefore, it was considered "the greatest merit for a woman to be reborn as a man." Murcott, p.78. The Jaina view on the subject as represented by Kundakunda are discussed below. 4. Robert P. Goldman, "Introduction," Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women (Berkeley: Univeristy of California Press, 1991) p.xi. 42 I strongly recommend the poignent book by Susan Murcot cited above. Other excellent sources include: Nancy Falk, "An Image of Woman in Old Buddhist Literature: The Daughters of Mara," Women and Religion, Judith Plaskow and Joan Amold, eds. (Missoula Montana: Scholars Press, 1974) pp. 105-112, Diana Paul, Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in Mahayana Tradition (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1979); Janice D. Willis, "Nuns;" and "Female Patronage in Indian Buddhism," in The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.46-53. 43 That Shkymuni prevented women's ordination is particularly surprising because his first teacher was a woman renouncer. See Murcott, p.41. 44 Willis, "Nuns and Benefactresses," p.59. 45 Ibid., p.61. 46 Murcott, pp.15-17.
Swamy Ghanananda, "The Improved Status of Women in Jainism and Buddhism," Women Saints, East and West (Hollywood, CA.: Vedanta Press, 1979) p. 157.
48 Ibid., p. 156.
* Paul Dundas, The Jains (London: Routledge, 1992) p.49. 30 Muni Uttam Kamal Jain, Jaina Sects and Schools (Delhi: Concept Publishing, 1975) p. 9.
Ibid., p.15. Murcott, p.60.
Ibid. 54 M.U.K. Jain, p.14.
35 Ibid., p.20.
56 While one might well expect that sexual abstinence is a forgone conclusion for renouncers, the issues has never been resolved. Padmanabh S. Jaini discusses the implications of the four vows of Parshvanatha and the five vows of Mahavira. The central question revolved around whether or not Parshvanatha allowed his ordained followers to engage in sexual activity. See The Jaina Path To Purification (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979) pp. 15-18. Living concurrently with Mahavira and his followers were the followers of Parshavanatha who recognized only four vows. Until the Parshavanatha monks were absorbed, it appeared that "the Jaina order had twin authority, that of Mahavira and the earlier one, that of Parsva. It is generally believed by scholars that the unification of the orders of Parsva and Mahavira remained in tact for several centuries. There seems to have been underlying tensions, nonetheless, that were not reported in any official texts until the middle of the second century C.E." See: K.C. Lalwani, Srumana Bhagavan Mahavira: Life and Doctrine (Calcutta: Minerva Associates, 1975, p.46. » Kalpasutra, pp. 134-145. See: Lalwani, p.46.
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58
Dundas, p.49. He adds, "the dynamic involved in the formation of this community, with its suspiciously symmetrical numbers, is unclear and no conclusions can be drawn as to why there should have been a preponderance of women at the outset."
59 Murcott, p.61.
60 Nalini Balbir, "Women In Jainism," Religion and Women, Arvind Sharma, ed. (Albany: State University of New York) p. 123.
61 Ramendra Nath Nandi, Social Roots of Religion in Ancient India (Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi & Co., 1986) pp. 109-114.
62 Padmanabh S. Jaini, Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) p.1.
63 Jaini, Gender, pp. 31-35.
64
That religious men in search of divine truth could propound such notions is not surprising. Sudhir Kakar reminds us, "Indeed, some of the best-known mystics have been and continue to be pompous and self-righteous, woman-haters...," Shamans, Mystics and Doctors (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982) p. 122.
65 M.U.K. Jain, p. 153.
66
Dundas, p.51.
67 Jack Finegan, An Archaeological History of Religions of Indian Asia (New York: Paragon House, 1989) p.219.
68
Ibid., p.233.
Jaini, Gender, 40n.; Ghanananda, p.156.
69
70
Balbir, p. 136.
Jaini, Salvation, p. 14.
Balbir, p. 136.
71
72
73 Ibid., p.15.
74
Jain, p. 154.
75 Altekar, pp.336-353; Murcott, pp.93-101.
76
Dundas, p. 15. 77 Falk, p. 109.

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Harappa and Jainism
T.N. Ramachandran Retired Officer, Archaeological Survey of India
The most impressive extant products of the Indus civilization are their stone sculptures. A total of thirteen pieces of statuary including two well-known and much discussed stone statuettes from Harappa have come to light. Of these, three statues represent animal figures and five represent what has been designated the stereotyped squatting gods.
Two particular statuettes, however, have revolutionized existing notions about ancient Indian art. Both these male torsos, less than four inches in height have socket holes in the neck and shoulder for the attachment of heads and arms. The torsos exhibit what many have called a sensitive modelling that was both firm and resilient. From an artistic perspective, the body of the torso can be described as an unrestrained lifeforce pressing from within, activating every particle of the surface of the stone and appearing to be in the throes of a subtle and rumbling movement emanating from the core of the body. Despite only being three and a quarter inches high, the massive torso, in short, records an inner movement of life within the walls of the body. This physical variety is to continue through the ages as the veritable standard in Indian art for divinities, particularly those which represent creative activity held under control (jitendryia) such as the Jaina tirthankaras or deities deep in penance or meditation.
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The other statuette represents the nimble figure of a dancer whose gliding curves and emphasized planes are intertwined as if suspended in a space eternally repeating the movement of the long forgotten dance. The volume of the figure is not only evenly distributed round its axis, but also well balanced in the intersection of the planes created within the space of the body movements. It is these external movements which govern the unit of space and volume in which the torso exists. Much like the other statuettes, which are dated to about 2400-2000 B.C.E., the head (or heads), arms and genital organ of the dancing figure were carved separately and socketed into drilled holes in the torso. The nipples were cut separately and are fixed with cement. The navel is cup shaped, and a hole is drilled on the left thigh. Unfortunately, the legs are broken.
The other figure described above, presents a somewhat adipose youth posed in a static, "frontality" position in which the muscular forms are delineated with the careful observation, restraint and breadth of style which has become the hallmark feature of the engraved seals of Mohenjo-Daro. In contrast, the dancing figure is so lively and fresh that it has no affinity to what some have called the dead formalism of the MohenjoDaro statuary. It appears to be ithyphalic, lending force to the suggestion that it may represent a prototype of the later day Nataraja, the dancing form of Siva. In both cases, these statuettes appear to be the prototypes of what was to become the two characteristic modes of Indian sculpture: the one recording the inner unconscious movements of life within the plastic walls of the body; the other, outer movement of the body by an act of will within the space encircled by a transcendent vision of movement.
The stone statuette in the stance of "frontality" also establishes a fundamental truth about (ancient) Indian art, namely, that Indian art is as firmly rooted in nature as well as coupled with its social environment and supramundane origin. It represents, as image-text for the observer, an inner control to

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be utilized for introspective peace (santi). This indeed is what we see associated with the Jaina gods and tirthankaras whose colossal images such as those in Sravanabelagola, Karkal and Venur engage public attention. With the senses controlled by physical effort, with strength and creative activity restrained metaphysically, with the physical features (limbs) completely abandoned in a state of absolute nudity to the rigours of clime and weather, the colossal statues of the Jaina tirthankaras and Jaina ascetics -- such as of Bahubali at Sravanabelagola -- have a lesson to humanity that non-violence and the silken thread of ahimsa is the only panacea for human suffering (ahimsa parmo dharma).
With this analogy in mind let us reassess the Harappan statuette of the young man. Being in exactly the above specified pose, would we be too far off the track in identifying what has been called a god-statue as actually representing a tirthankara or a Jaina ascetic of accredited fame and penance? Though its date of 2400-2000 B.C. has been disputed by some archaeologists, there is nothing in its style to differentiate it from that of certain terracotta figurines and representations on some of the engraved seals from Mohenjo-Daro. In this connection, views of Sir Mortimer Wheeler on this statuette as published in his Indus Valley Civilization are worth quoting:
These two statuettes, just under four inches in height as preserved, are male torsos exhibiting a sensitiveness and vivacity of modelling entirely foreign to the works considered above. So outstanding are their qualities that some doubt must for the present remain as to the validity of their ascription to the Indus period. Unfortunately the technical methods employed by their finders were not such as to provide satisfactory stratigraphical evidence; and the statements that one, the dancer, was found on the granary site at Harappa and that the other was 4'-10" below the surface

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in the same general area do not in themselves preclude the possibility of intrusion. Attribution to a later period is also not free from difficulty, and doubt can only be resolved by further and more adequately documented discoveries of a comparable kind (Cambridge History of India, 1953:66).
From this concluding remarks, it is clear that the attribution of a later period to the statuette is as difficult a position to establish as the earlier date of the third millennium B.C.E. The case for both dating periods are equally strong. Suffice to say, art critics have declared that for pure simplicity and feeling, nothing that compared with these two masterpieces was produced until the great age of Hellas.
With this in mind, let us attempt to determine the subjective and objective qualities of the statuette under description. From the subjective perspective, as was already noted, the one stature is of a naked god/saint standing erect in the elemental pose of "frontality," with shoulders well-backed and clear-cut physical features delineating that life is moving within the modelled mass in a well regulated, controlled -- yet, amazingly fluid order. The genital pose rhymes with the spirit of control, bringing out what could be interpreted as the force contained within the religious and philosophical image of a Jina (conqueror of the senses).
By way of contrast and comparison to this interpretation, one may study the engraved seal from MohenjoDaro (Cambridge History of India, 1953, pl. XXIII) of the third millennium B.C.E. which represents, according to certain scholars, Rudra Pasupati>Mahadeva seated in meditation in the midst of mortals such as men, animals such as rhinoceros, buffalo, tiger, elephant, antelopes, birds and fish. The meditation pose is termed peniserectum (urdhva-etas), representing the upward force of creative activity. The iconography of the god noticed in the Mohenjo-Daro seal

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appears to be fully explained by the following riks from the Rig Veda:
Brahma among gods, leader of the poets, risi of sages,buffalo among animals, hawk among birds,axe among weapons, over the sieve goes Soma singing. The thrice-bent bull goes on roaring -- The Great God has completely entered the mortals. Rudra is the lord of creatures (IX-9-66).
In the light of the above interpretation of the MohenjoDaro seal and what appears to be some form of agreement contained within the Rig Veda it would appear that it should be easy to identify the statuette under description by a reference to the Rig Veda. While leading an archaeological expedition to Afghanistan, the writer had occasions to verify the records of Yuan Chwang (600-654 A.D.). His description of Hosina Ghazni or Ghazna, Hazara or Hosala is of great significance:
There are many tirthaka [author's italics] heretics here, who worship the Ksuna Deva. Those who invoke him with faith obtain their wishes. People both far off and near show for him deep reverence. High and low alike are filled with religious awe of him.... The tirthakas by subduing their minds and mortifying flesh get from the spirits of heaven sacred formulae with which they control diseases and recover the sick.
Ksuna Deva (Suna or Sisna Deva) was probably tirthakara or tirthankara, or possibly their followers that illumined the pantheon of Jainism, famous for its gospel of ahimsa. The record of Yuan Chwang bears testimony to the spread of Jainism even in Afghanistan. In the life account of Buddha we read that his foremost opponents were six chiefs or tirthakas: Puana, Kassaya, Gosala, Kuccayana, Nigantha Nathaputta and

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Sanjaya. We can recognize in Gosala the Gosala of Ajivika faith, and in Nigantha Nathaputta the last and twenty-fourth tirthankara Mahavira. The god Ksuna Deva in the description of Yuan Chwang indicates that he is referring probably to the naked Jaina tirthankara; and the term tirthakas also standing for tirthakaras or tirthankaras.
The advent of Jainism in Afghanistan is indeed a revelation. The term Ksuna Deva may probably stand for the term Suna or Sisna Deva. Going back to the Rg Veda for a moment, we find references to naked gods -- Sisna Devas -- in two hymns which invoke Indra for protection of Vedic sacrifices from these gods:
Oh Indra! No evil spirits have impelled us nor fiends, or mighty gods with their devices. Let our true God subdue the hostile rabble. Let not the naked gods (Sisna Devas) approach our holy yajna or worship (VII-22-5).
On most auspicious path he [Indra) goes to battle. He toiled to win heaven's light, full pain to gain it. He seized the hundred-gated castle's treasure by craft, unchecked, slaying (in the affair) naked gods (Sisna Devas] (X.93.3).
Macdonnell, in his Vedic Mythology (p.155), remarks that the worship of Sisna Devas was repugnant to the Rig Veda. Indra is besought not to let Sisna Devas approach Vedic sacrifices, and it is said that Indra was to have slain the Sisna Devas when he stealthily saw treasures hidden in a fort provided with one hundred gates.
Perhaps these two riks also indicate a truth that we are now recognizing in the Harappa statuette; a full-fledged Jain tirthankara in the characteristic pose of physical abandon (kayotsarga), a pose which has been immortalized in the later day colossal statues of Jain tirthankaras and siddhas such as at

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Sravanabelagola, Karkal, Venur, etc. One may wonder if a later day Jaina iconographic pose such as kayotsarga could have appeared as early as the Harappan or Mohenjo-Daro times (third millennium B.C.). Surely the conceptions of absolute nudity and inner abandon of all physical consciousness for the realization of the Jaina fundamental doctrine of ahimsa can lead only to one pose.
It is this pose that we find at Harappa in the statuette being described here. There is thus a continuity and unity in this ideology and there are no other iconographic details in the statuette to confuse, or lead us astray. Also the nude pose is in strict contrast to the Vedic description of their god Mahadeva Rudra Pasupati as urdhva-medhra, the pose in which we find him depicted on the steatite seal of MohenjoDaro (Cambridge History of India, 1953: pl. XXIII).
The chronology and hierarchy of the series of twentyfour tirthankaras do not stand in the way of the date of the Harappa statuette. In the present list of tirthankaras, we know that Mahavira was the last and a contemporary of Buddha in the sixth century B.C.E. Parsvanatha, the twenty-third tirthankara, lived approximately one hundred years before Mahavira; and Neminatha, the twenty-second tirthankara, was a cousin of Krishna of the Bhagavadgita.
Recent excavations at Hastinapura (near Meerut), the cradle of the activities of the Pandavas of the Mahabharata, has given a date of occupation between 1100-800 B.C. We have yet to account for the twenty-one tirthankaras that precede Neminatha. If we push back the dates proportionately to each tirthankaras, we are led hypothetically to find the first tirthankara Adinatha (also called Rsabhanatha, Rsabhadeva) standing on the threshold of the last quarter of the third millennium B.C.E. The Harappa statuette has been assigned by the critics a date between 2400-2000 B.C.E.
That the first tirthankara Adinatha is significant, for the riks of the Rig Veda are fond of repeating that it was Rsabha

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that performed the function of proclaiming great truths, including the advent of a Great God.
That Adinatha alias Rsabhadeva founded a new order of faith in a spirit of protest against Vedic sacrifice and injury to animals. Subsequently the followers of Adinatha, the tirthankaras and siddhas, put his faith on a firm wheel the wheel of ahimsa and set it moving into time and space, gaining strength like electric coils which supercharged the atmosphere with the reverberation, ahimsa parmo-dharma.
Nudity of Rsabha is a point too well-known to be disputed and it is considered as a factor of holiness in the Jaina creed. If the Rg Veda seeks the help of Indra, one of the Vedic gods, for protection of Vedic sacrifices from Sisna Devas (the naked gods), it is obvious that the Rg Veda is only chronicling a fact of history: the origin of Jainism as envisioned by Rsabha, who did usher in an ending of animal sacrifices that were associated with the Vedic yajnas. To win the confidence and convince humanity of the loftiness of his mission, the first tirthankara threw away all clothing exposing himself and his followers to the lime-light of self-sacrifice and physical sacrifice (kayotsarga). This delightful message has been imaged in Indian art, and Harappan statuette is a splendid representative specimen of the Jaina thought perhaps at its very inception.□

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Mohenjo-Daro Jaina Tradition and Evidence
Acarya Vidyanandji Kundakunda Bharati, Delhi
Rendered to English Dr. Padmarajiah Tumkur Mississauga, Canada.
Editor's Note: This is a condensed version of the Kannada text published co-jointly by Kundakunda Bharati of Delhi and Sri Ksetra of Dharmastala 1987.
The Artifact
The most spectacular thing about the seals found at Mohenjo-Daro is their artistic presentation; the body form and its artistic intricate bring out a sublime beauty. More importantly, when analysed, the seals appear to contain the culmination of several ideological concepts eminating from the indigenous rootstocks.

From this perspective, the artifact exhibit # 620/192329 in the Archaeological Museum in Delhi is worthy of consideration. It represents an ancient Jaina archaeological form. As such this particular artifact is not only a representation of the Jaina antiquity, but also a source of
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historical, traditional and conceptional understanding of the period.
The seal has multiple depictions: there is the nude deity in kayotsarga position with kalpavrksa twig around the headarea, and a trisula behind and over the head; a person with his headgear, indicating royalty, is kneeling to the nude deity; there is a bull behind the royal person, and seven secondary people with conspicuous and commanding attire are placed at the bottom of the seal. The nude kayotsarga figure is that of Rsabha, the first tirthankara according to both Vedic and Jaina accounts: that is, spiritual specifications underlined by sublime ascetic characteristics, transcendental mooring of the mind, and the position he had held as Kulakara in the Jain context, or as the last Manu of the Hindus.
What is a trisula in Jainism? What place it has in Jaina spirituality? According to Jainism, there are three essential points arising from a source of contemplative mind, and in Jaina philosophical thought, they are functions of the psychospiritual path. Technically they are known as samyagjnana (Right Knowledge), samyagdarsana (Right Faith), and samyagcaritra (Right Conduct), which in all their totality are referred as triratna. They are the quintessence of liberation. The trisula in the seal is the representation of the triratna.
The kneeling person is Emperor Bharata, the eldest son of Rsabha. He is revering to Rsabha with folded-hands with bent down head. He is adorned with crown and possess royal radiance. The bull behind him represents the insignia of the first tirthankara. The seven figures located at the bottom of the seal, wearing the attire of the times and standing as required by protocol, are said to be members of the council of ministers.
The Jaina Antiquity
Although the archaeological and historic record are very important sources to establish antiquity, as seen in the

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evidences from Mohenjo-Daro excavations, it is still quite difficult to determine a precise beginning of Jain religion. Some of the evidences available from Mohenjo-Daro push back the antiquity of Jainism at least 5,000 years from the present era. The study of the finds of the Indus Valley Civilization have clearly established the kayotsarga stance as one of the special characteristic features of Jainism. In these finds, three special characteristic features are displayed: kayotsarga posture, dhyanastithi [meditational contemplation] and nudity. Mohenjo-Daro seals containing kayotsarga posture also have the bull picture, and the bull is the insignia of Rsabha.
The Padmacandrakosa explains the origin of the meaning of the word Rsabha: "A saint who has mastered all knowledge." In the Hindu Puranas, there are references to Rsabha and his son Bharata. There was, however, a false view that India derived its name after Bharata, son of Dusyanta. It has now been established by many scholars that the name originated with Emperor Bharata, the elder son of Rsabha.4 The earlier name of India was Ajanabhavarsa. Ajanabha (Nabhi) was the father of Rsabha. Hence the Ajanabhavarsa. The varsa means country-nation, as in the reference to India as Bharatavarsa.
name
Asceticism in India is quite ancient and its continual and progressive growth has been phenomenal. Similarly, the yoga system was pioneered by the ksatriya class, and later the Brahmins adopted it.5 The Indus Valley Civilization artifacts reveal this system which represents a progressive tradition. The view that the Indus Valley Civilization was that of the Jaina culture is supported by historic, cultural and literary sources." Nilakantadass observes that "Jainism is a religion of asceticism and austerities. Before the advent of the Vedic system, Jainism was prevalent in India. In all probability it was a Dravidian religion before the Vedic tradition."7 In the Jaina system there are few special terminological words. Dr. Magaladev Sastri is

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of the view that the term vatarasana was used in the sense of Jain monk. Further, he contends that like the word sramana, vatarasana term was also used for the ascetic tradition, which, without any doubt, was pre-Vedic. In his article, R.P. Chanda gives a detailed description of the seal:9
Not only the seated deities engraved on some of the Indus seals are in yoga posture and bear witness to the prevalence of yoga in the Indus Valley in the remote age, the standing deities on the seals also show kayotsarga posture of yoga (p. 159), ... (which ) is peculiarly Jain. It is a posture, not of sitting, but of standing. In the Adipurana, Book XVIII, kayotsarga posture is described in connection with the penances of Rishbha or Vrishabh (Rsabha), the first Jina of the Jinas (p. 158). [In comparison) to a standing image of Jina Rishabha in kayotsarga posture on a stele showing four such images assignable to the second century A.D. (Curzon Museum of Archaeology, Mathura), ... both the early Egyptian statues and the archaic Greek Kouroi, though show nearly the same pose, they lack the feeling of abandon that characterizes the standing figures on the Indus seals and images of Jinas in the kayotsarga posture. The name Rishabah means bull, and the bull is the emblem of Jina Rishabha (Curzon Museum of Archaeology, Mathura).
In R.P. Chanda's description of the Indus seal Rsabha image may be considered as belonging to earlier times. The engravings of meditative Rsabha, trisula, kalpavrksa twig, the bull, Bharata and his council of ministers - are important evidences, which find support in the Jain literature. 10 Historian Radhakumud Mukherjee also supports this view.!! A similar image of Rsabha is also found in Mathura Museum. 12 P.C.
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Roy also agrees that after the Palaeolithic age, the agriculture era was begun in Magadha at the time of Rsabha. 13
The descriptive account of the seal and the tradition as given by R.P. Chanda has astonishing similiarities in Jaina works. Vimalasuri's Prakrit work Paumacariya (3rd C.E.), Virasena's Dhavala (780 C.E.) and Jinasena's Adipurana (840 C.E.) provide descriptional characteristics of the seal and on comparison show a striking resemblance, and bring ou. the following points:
1 - The nude Puradeva (Rsabha) is standing in the kayotsarga posture.
2 - Over his head, trisulu is shown. This is the lithic representation of triratna.
3 - Display of tender twig near the face indicates divyadhvani 14
4 -Two branches of Kalpavrksa with flowers and fruits. They represent the phala [benefit of selfsurrendering and meditation.
5 - Bharata cakravartin in anjalibudhha sboth hands folded) is knelt and bent with reverence to Rsabha.
6 - Behind Bharata, the bull which is the emblem of Rsabha is depicted.
7 - At the bottom [of the seal], there are seven people with dignified attire. They represent a council of ministers [of the cakravartin) with their respective portfolios: Feudatories (mundalika), Governor (janapada), Village Chief (grumadipati), Interior
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(durgadhikari),Treasury (bhandari), Defence (shadanga baladhikari) and External (mitra).
Symbols used in the Mohenjo-Daro seals and their use in the Jaina literature have some significance. Because, these symbols still are held in high esteem in Jaina way of life. These symbols are swastika, trisula and kalpsvrksa twig which have been already discussed, except for swastika.
Swastika symbol in Jainism has a very deep meaning in the spiritual context of the soul, karma and reincarnation. It has been explained as a symbol of caturgati, four stages of physical condition in the cosmic description. It is naraka, tiryanca, manusya and deva. During the puja, the Jainas make a swastika over which three dots and a half crescent are shown. This diagrammatic representation is the journey of the jiva in the path of deliverance.
In conclusion I would like to refer to the views of P.R. Dessmukh: 15
Jaina's first tirthankara hailed from the tradition of Indus Valley Civilization. The deities of the Induspeople were nude. The Jainas have perpetually kept that tradition and culture as well as adoring the nude tirthankaras.
Similarly, he has discussed on the nature of Indus valley language:
The Language of the Indus-people was Prakrit. [It was] the language of the folks. There existed a distinct linguistic difference between the Jainas and the Hindus. All the canonical literature of the Jainas are in Prakrit - that too in Ardamagadhi [dialect]. But all the Hindu religious literature are in Sanskrit. The use of Prakrit

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therefore establishes that Jainism is pre-Vedic, and as well had interrelationship with the Indus Valley Culture. I
REFERENCES
1. Ram Prasad Chanda, "Sind Five Thousand Years Ago" in Modern Review, Calcutta, August 1932 2. Acarya Tulsi and Muni Nathumal, Atit ka Anavarn, p. 16, Bharatiya Jnanpith, Delhi 1969.
3.Padmacandrakosa, p.495; Rsabhadeva 1. Rsa+abhak=Knower, diva-acch (monk who has mastered all knowledge; first tirthankara. 4. Dr. Vasudeva Saran Agrawal, Markandeya Purana: 1 Cultural Study, pp.22-24. 5. Nemicandra, Pratisthatilaka (18-1). 6. Vacaspati Gairola, Bharatiya Dartsana, p.93. 7. Odissa men Jainadharma, Inrod., World Jain Mission, Etah, 1959. 8. Navneet, Hindhi Monthly, p.69, Bombay, June 1974. 9. Ram Prasad Chanda, pp. 158 & 159. 10. Dr. Kamta Prasad Jain, Aditirthankara Rsabhaseva, p. 138. 11. Radhamukud Mukherjee. 12. Dr. Kamta Prasad Jain, p.23. 13. P.C. Roy, Jainism in Bihar, p.7. 14. Srimad Arhadasa, Purudeva Campu Prabhanda, divyadhvani mrdulatalankrta mukhum.
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BOOK REVIEWS
Mikal Austin Radford
SHERIDAN COLLEGE OAKVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA
Restoration of the Original Language of Ardhamagadhi Texts. By K.R. Chandra. xxiv + 104 pp. Prakrit Jain Vidya Vikas Fund, Vol. 10, Ahmedabad, 1994.
As a methodological exemplar, Dr. K. R. Chandra's Restoration of the Original Language of Ardhamagadhi Texts is an outstanding contribution to both Ardhamagadhi and Jaina textual scholarship. Ardhamagadhi is a variant of Prakrit and was instrumental in the early development of the Jaina tradition.
Although the oldest Jaina Canonical literature, such as the Acaranga I, the Sutrakrtanga I and the Rsibhasitani, were originally composed in an archaic form of Ardhamagadhi, it is Dr. Chandra's contention that over time the original idiom of these texts suffered so many alterations that the primary linguistic forms are almost unrecognizable. For example, some of these alterations included the interchange of jaha for jadha, aha for adha, and "the older Prakrit form of the Sanskrit yathu as adha (compared with the atha of the eastern Ashokan inscriptions in which the initial y- of the Sanskrit yatha is lost)."
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The problem is, according to Dr. Chandra, that "the characteristics of the language of this canonical work should be of an archaic nature in comparison with that of later Ardhamagadhi and other Prakrit works. But it is not so as it has continuously undergone changes willingly or unwillingly at the hands of generations of preachers and copyists even after the canon was put to writing.... As the tradition goes the emphasis was on the meaning and not on the medium."
Compounding this problem was regional mobility. As Jains from the north-east region of the sub-continent moved westward, the original oral and written transmissions of the Agamic Ardhamagadhi tradition were impacted by such Ashokan dialects as Svaraseni, and more consequentially, Maharastri Prakrit. This would eventually lead to a jungle of variant textual readings with no uniformity of language.
As Dr. Chandra states, "in the absence of any earlier grammatical treatise it could not be possible to protect the original form of Ardhamagadhi. Secondly, works on Prakrit grammar are of late origin having a time gap (with the Ardhamagadhi) of one thousand to seventeen hundred years ( i.e. of Vararuci, Canda and Hemacandra). These grammatical treatises do not help us in deciding the original form of Ardhamagadhi for editing those canonical works which are comparatively regarded as the earliest compositions."
It is his contention, however, that with a thorough comparison of all extant Agamic Ardhamagadhi palm-leaf and paper manuscripts with the linguistic, stylistic and contentbased features of the Ashokan and Pali dialects, it is possible to extract the rudimentary Ardhamagadhi content and context. In a mammoth undertaking, Restoration of the Original Language of Ardhamagadhi Texts is the first step of what will hopefully be an ongoing project -- a comprehensive explication of the entire Agamic collection.
For this study Dr. Chandra has selected ten words and, using a statistical methodology, compiled a textual database of
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all the known variants contained within the available manuscripts and compared them to the older stratum of the Ardhamagadhi texts. As the framework of his methodology he chose to:
• List the variant forms in the published text and its MSS. • List the Sutra numbers of each variant of a word. • List the frequency of each variant in MSS.
List the total number of each variant in all the MSS. List the variants of ksetrajna in the Sutrakrtanga. List the similar older forms from other older
Ardhamagadhi texts. • Compile a comparative list for final analysis.
Using this model as a typical case-study, Dr. Chandra concludes that this type of analysis demonstrates that isolated archaic word-forms preserved in manuscripts are suggestive pointers that can give us a glimpse of the original language of the texts
In conclusion, when one takes into account Dr. Banerjee's observations that inscriptional Prakrits and Pali should not be the only primary external-language models, and keeps in mind that the development of Ardhamagadhi sometimes shows a greater affinity with old Persian rather than classical Sanskrit, ontcan view the text as an integral first step in the linguistic re-editing of the oldest Ardhamagadhi canonical texts. O
Vaddamanu Excavations: 1981-85. By T.V.G. Sastri et al. i + 328 pp., figs 58. Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute, Hyderabad, 1991.
Although difficult to obtain in North America, the Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute's Vaddumunu Excavations (1981-85) is an extraordinary report well worth
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the search. Designed for use by scholars, researchers and the general public alike, this summary of the Vaddamanu finds is aimed at those with a particular interest in the diffusion of Jaina and Buddhist religious communities in South India between the third century B.C.E and fifth century C.E. For those unacquainted with the location of the site, Vaddamanu is situated in Andhra Pradesh along the banks of the River Krishna, thirty-four kilometres north-east of Guntur and ten kilometres south of the Buddhist site of Amaravati.
The text itself consists of twelve chapters which strategically integrate written text with maps, stratigraphy charts, floor plans of the structures (there are four successive periods of habitation at this site), photographic plates (black and white) and well-defined artifact illustrations. A modest bibliography is included as chapter thirteen.
With the introduction, co-authors Sastri, Kasturbai and Veerender guide the reader through the historical and geographical landscape of Vaddamanu and the surrounding region. This skillfully lays the essential foundation needed for the presentation of methodology, stratigraphic record, and the pragmatic strategies employed at the site in the second chapter. Chapters three, four, five, six and seven present the data of the "early historical cultures" and their chronological record. In an intelligible and uncomplicated unveiling of the material, the reader is introduced to locus identification using, among other criteria, building structures (stupas, viharas, etc.), cut-stone inscriptions (which contain Brahmi script datable between 300 B.C.E. and 200 C.E.), ceramic technologies (pottery typology), coins, and, of particular interest, inscribed potsherds (ostraca). Period I, for example, is demarcated by structures built of stone and baked brick and characterised by the "presence of megalithic black-and-red and black ware" which yielded a number of comparisons to the fourth century B.C.E. sites of Amaravati and Dharankikota. The inscribed potsherds found in the upper level of the period I stratigraphy
are

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palaeographically datable to approximately 300 to 100 B.C.E., as are the early Brahmi rock-cut inscriptions dedicated to King Samaka.
Again using the same archaeological repertoire as guide to stratigraphic interpretation, Sastri et al. have dated the occupation of the period II levels between 100 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. Some of the important artefacts of this period were the inscribed potsherds mentioning Bhoka Vadhaman pava te and carved Jaina symbols and motifs -- rather than Buddhist the railing fragments of the stupas: an indication, the authors reason, that Jains built and dedicated some of the structures of period II to the twenty-fourth Tirtankara, Vardhaman (Mahavira).
on
Combined with the other in situ evidence of period I, the authors took the interpretation of this data one step further and suggested that Vaddamanu acted as a main centre for the establishment of Jainism going back to the period of Chandragupta Maurya. The stratigraphy of period II also included coins, some which contained inscriptions of the Sada family. If these inscribed names, the authors speculate, are related to the Sada kings who established rule over the Mahishaka region, this would place Siri ("the first Sada ruler") Sada's regime at approximately 100 B.C.E., suggesting a new historical context for this dynasty. The beginning of period III is indicated by the discovery of coins of the Ikshvaku dynasty (227 C.E.) and red ceramics with evolved rims, bowls and dishes. Only a few of the rouletted ceramic pieces which dominated the period II stratigraphy were found in period III. Period IV was based on the closing date of period III, the first half of the fourth century C.E., and ending by approximately 450 C.E. The authors note that some antiquities belonging to this period indicate some disturbances of these layers. Chapters eight to eleven are arranged typologically and provide a comprehensive study of the lithic and non-lithic finds such as coins, dies, moulds seals, art, sculptures and minor antiquities.

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If fault must be found in the field work and subsequent report, it is the lack of an osteological and biodata summary. One would like to assume that no bones (human or animal) or other biodata were found, rather than, this information was ignored. Although it was mentioned that some human skeletal remains were recovered while some of the local residents dug the foundations of some of their houses, a collection and report of the biodata certainly would have contributed to a greater understanding of the inhabitants of Vaddamanu. This does not, however, distract from the immense advances this text contributes to the discussion of the South Asian chronicle.
Prakrit Bharati Publications
3826 Moti Singh Bhomiyon Rasta Jaipur-302003, India
These titles are of academic interest to students of religious studies, Jainism and Indology. Order Now
Jain Inscriptions of Rajasthan
R.V. Somani
Not Far From the River
Samanasuttam
Jaina Political Thought
Naladiyar of Acarya Padumanar
Uvavaiya Suttam
Nitivakyamritam of Somadeva
Isibhasiyaim Suttam
Astronomy and Cosmology
Rasaratna Samuccya of Manikyadevasuri

David Ray
K.C. Sogani
G.C. Pandey
M. Vinay Sagar
K.C. Lalwani
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Jain Quarterlies from India Jain Journal Editor Dr. S. R. Banerjee P-25 Kalakar Street, Culcatta - 700007 Annual Subscription US $ 10 Arhat Vacan Editor Dr. Anupam Jain 584 M.G. Road, Jukoganj, Indore - 452 001 Annual Subscription US $ 15 BooK-POST O भारत INDIA 100 HRA 100 Bramhi Jain Society 1331 Clinton Street Buffalo, N.Y. 14206 TGANDA DEPT-OF HINDI DANIELSON COLLEGE CHINDWARA DR. LALIT SHAH 21 SAUMYA APTS AHMEDABAD, GUJRAT- 380015