History of Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 001727
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute
Publication Year: 1956
Total Pages: 616
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Principle, & History
File Size: 12 MB

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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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Buddhist Corroboration :
The existence of these communities is corroborated by the oldest Buddhist texts also. The Anguttara-Nikāya,5 Milindapañhas and the SamyuttaNikāya’ refer to a number of wandering sects and faiths. Other Support:
Besides these Jaina and Buddhist literary evidences, the accounts of Megasthenes who visited India at the time of Candragupta Maurya, and the edicts of Asoka' reveal a number of ascetic groups at their time. The Basic Identity of these Communities :
Some of the features of monastic conduct were common to all these communities.
The members of such groups gave up worldly life, and severing all contact with the society, they wandered as homeless persons. 10
Being least dependent on society, they maintained themselves by begging food.11
Having no home, they led a wandering life,12 staying, however, at one place in the rainy season13 in order to avoid injury to living beings.
Lastly, they seemed to acknowledge no caste barriers, and hence consisted of various elements of the society. Prominence to the Samana :
Among all these numerous communities, a place of prominence was always attributed to a class of wandering mendicants called as the Samanas.
An attempt on the part of "the Jainas who use the term prior to the Buddhists”,14 reveals their efforts to raise the position of the Samaņa equal to that of the Brāhmaṇa, if not superior to him.
5 III, pp. 276-77. 6. SBE, XXXVI, Pt. ii, Intr. pp. xxiii ff.
7. III, pp. 238, 240; See N. DUTT, Early Buddhist Monachism, pp. 34 ff; Law, Buddhistic Studies, pp. 89 ff.
8. WILSON, Works, Vol. I, p. 324 quoted by RICE, I.A, Vol. III (1874), p. 158.
9 Collection of Prakrta and Skt. Inscri., Bhavanagar Arch. Deptt.; Junāgadh, Edict. No. 3: Bambhana samaņānam ......'; also Corp. Insc. Ind., Vol. L, HULTZSCH, Edn. IV, Ecicts of Girnar, Shahbazgarhi and Mansehrā.
10. 'Agārāo anagāriam pavvayai' compares favourably with the Buddhist 'Agarasma anagariyar pabbajati.'
11. Goyari, Bhikkhāyariya. 12. "Gāmāņugamam viharai'. 13. Vassā: Common to the Buddhists and the Jains. 14. RHYS DAVIDS, Buddhist India, p. 143.