Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
“Just as an ox roams freely in the woods, so does the Sacrificer in the Brahmaloka” does not appear to be accurate in view of the detailed explanation of the rite given in the Jaiminiya Brāhmana II. 113. The latter text describes the vrata of the Gosava and it consists in imitating the ways of an ox. The Sacrificer is to lie with his mother, his sister, and a woman of his own gotra, drink water and eat grass with face downwards, and ease himself wherever he feels the necessity. It is said that Janaka of Videba wanted to perform the Gosava, but when he was told about the procedure, he declared that he was willing to pay the prescribed sacrificial fee, but not to undertake the vrata, and did not after all venture to set about the rite. Punyakeśa, the king of the Sibis, once undertook the Gosava. He felt like easing himself in the royal assembly, and while uncovering himself for the purpose then and there, exclaimed that the rite was suitable only for old men, and only an old man should undertake it, for all this' is permissible to the old. The Brāhmana therefore concludes that the Gosava was a sthavirayajña, and should be undertaken only at an advanced age. It was thus an apparently innocent sacrifice primarily designed for old people, free from the repulsive significance attributed to it by Jaina writers. It may be noted that the urata described in the Jaiminiya Brāhmana is omitted in most of the texts dealing with the Gogava, e. g., in the Srauta Sūtras of Kātyāyana (op. cit.), śāňkhāyana 14. 15, Baudhāyana 18. 7 and Asvalāyana 9. 8, and the Tāndya Brāhmana 19. 13; while the Taittiriya Brāhmana (op. cit.) seems to make only a passing reference to it: gauriva bhavati. Caland shows that there is good reason to believe that the Jaimintya Brāhmana is older than the Tāndya or Pañcaviņa Brāhmana, and he thinks that the latter text omitted certain details, e. g, the of vrata the Gosava, perhaps because it found them too "barbaric'. It is quite probable that the childish procedure of behaving like an ox became soon obsolete, and was excluded from the customary ritual of the Gosava.
Somadeva is not the only Jaina author to make misleading statements regarding Vedic sacrifices, Ravisena asserts in Padmacarita 11. 85 that intercourse with forbidden women is required in the Gosava sacrifice. Devasena who wrote Darsanasāra in 933 A. D.S says in his Prakrit Bhāvasaṁgraha (verses 52-3) that the cow is declared to be
1 Das Jaiminiya Brāhmana in Auswahl, p. 157. 2 34 PARTIST THITHU ' 3 aa atacate eta i 4 Pañcavimśa-Brāhmaṇa. Trans. Caland, Introduction, p. xxi. 5 See Introduction to : (Māņikacandra Jaina Granthamālā ), p. 12.