Jaina Biology

SR No.: 001543
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J C Sikdar
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 340
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Science, Biology, & Philosophy
File Size: 19 MB

Page 124

Animals and their Classification
Lamelli-branchiata), Mottiya (Mauktikā - a kind of pearls), Kaluya (a kind of two-sensed being), Vasa (a kind of twe-sensed beings ), Egaovatta (a kind of two-sensed beings ), Duhaovatta (a kind of two-sensed being), Namdiya vatta (a kind of two-sensed beings), Samvuka (Helix ), Sippisampuḍa Samputarupaka śuktayaḥ (pearl or shells), Camdana (Camdanakaḥ = Akṣah = a kind of two-sensed beings living in water and on land)51 and sammuddalikkha (sea-leeches? a kind of two-sensed being which live in the sea) and others like them.52
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All of them live in a part of the world only, they do not live everywhere 53 All of them are Sammurcchima animals ( asexually reproduced animals) and Napumsakas (of third sex). There are seven lakh species and birth-places of these developed and undeveloped twosensed animals.54 The duration of life of these animals is twelve years at the utmost, the shortest is less than a muhurta.55
Life of Two-sensed Animals :56
It appears from the study of aharaparyapti, sarira-paryapti, ucchvasa-niḥśvāsa paryapti, etc. of these animals that among the twosensed protozoa, single-celled animals, there is some division of labour within the single cell of these beings, but the cell functions as a unit to perform the activities associated with their life, such as, taking of food and digestion, formation of body, respiration, circulation, excretion, locomotion and reproduction. To carry out these functions many two-sensed animals have evolved specialized organells-cilia or flagella for movement, vacuoles, neurifibrils, eye-spots and so on as suggested by their names and identification57 in the light of modern Biology.
Most of the species of two-sensed animals (protozoa) are microscopic, although a few are big enough to be seen with the naked eye. Some are shapeless "blobs of protoplasm"; others are elaborately and geometrically patterned. They may have internal skeletons or external skeletons, or protective houses, e. g. Samkha (Conchifera), Samvuka (Helix )58 Kukṣirmi59 of Jaina Biology may be identical with Amaeba 51. Sambūka belongs to the group of Mollusca.
52. Jivavicaravṛtti, v. 16. They are called Aksha in the Vernacular (Samayabhāṣā). 53. Pannavana 1.56, p. 27.
54. Uttaradhyayna Sutra 36.130.
55. Pannavană 1.56.
56. Uttaradhyayana Sutra 36.132.
57. Tattvärthadhigama Sutra, II. 24,
58. e. g. Kucchikimiya, Neura, Gaṇḍūpadā (T.S.V. 24), Jaloya, Samkha, Sottiya, Naṁdiyävättä, Samvukka, etc. See Pannavanā, 1.56
59. Pannavana, 1.56
J. B.-15