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

Page 63

58
S. B. DEO
(5) Those knowing the 14 Pürvās
(6)
Those possessing the avadhi knowledge (7) The Kevalins
(8) Those who had the power to transform themselves
(9) Those of vast intellect
(10) Those who had reached perfection
(a) Males
(b) Females
(11) Those who were in their last birth
4750
9000
20000
20600
12650
Fabulous as the total would appear, we have no other evidence to check this number of the followers of Rsabha. After creating such a formidable following, Reabha ended his life on the mountain Aşțăpada after fasting for six and a half days without taking even water.1
20000
40000
20900
Evaluation of his career:
From the work he did as a king, it appears that he acted as a reformer and an inventor of civilised modes of human life. His undergoing the various stages of life as a prince, as a married man, as a king and lastly as a monk, seems, at present, a model on which the asrama theory was advocated later on, and expressed beautifully by Kalidasa in the Raghuvamsa.
That he did not fail even as a religious preacher is amply borne out by the enormous number of his followers. Even though we have no historical evidence whatever in this connection, the figures at least imply one possibility, and that is regarding his success in winning a respectable number of disciples.
Non-Jaina Evidence:
Visņu Purāṇa2 and the Bhagavata Purāņa refer to a certain Rṣabha, whose life-account resembles more or less to that given in the Jaina texts. The details regarding his parents, his elder son Bharata and his wandering in a naked state may be said to be identical with the Jaina account.
It may, however, be noted that these references though of a supplementary nature, coming as they do from the non-Jaina sources, are of a very late phase as compared with the enormous antiquity given to Rsabha by the Jainas. Moreover, the account of the Purāņas has not always been corrobo
1. The above account is based chiefly on Kalpasūtra, SBE., XXII, pp. 281-5; also Mahapurana of Puspadanta, Ed. P. L. VAIDYA, Sandhis 1-3.
2. See p. 39 above.