Jainthology

SR No.: 006577
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 294
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 60

There are also some indications of the influence of Pārsva's teachings having reached Central Asia and even Greece in those early times. In the eighties of the last century Prof. Beal was reported to have told the Royal Society that there undoubtedly was such a faith in Central Asia long before Buddhism was promulgated by Sakya Muni Gautama, and also that Sir Henry Rawlinson had, in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (September, 1885) and in his Central Asia (p. 246). called attention to the New Vihar (monastery) of Balkh and other monumental remains in brick, as showing the presence of Kaśyapa there.55 Now, according to the Adipurāņa. Kaśyapa alias Maghwā was the founder of the Uraga-vaṁsa in which Pärsva was born.56 Pārsva was also, therefore, known as Kaśyapa after his gotra name, and the ancient city of Kasita (Caspia) appears to have been named after him. The Greeks of the times of Alexander the Great57 and the Chinese pilgrims58 about a thousand years later noticed the existence of the Nirgrantha Śramaņas (Jainas) in that region. "This”, says Buhler, "points apparently to the fact that they (the Jainas) had in the north-west at least spread their missionary activity beyond the borders of India"59 Hence it has reasonably been inferred that Jainism was once, even before Mabảvira, prevalant in places like Caspia, Aman, Samarkand and Balkh,60 and the credit would certainly seem to go to Paráva. Herodotus, the Greek historian (5th century B.C.) wrote about an Indian Sect which ate nothing that had life and lived on a grain like millet, and the Greek philosopher Pythagoras talked of metem psychosis, transmigration of souls, and the doctrine of karma, even claiming that he possessed power to recollect his past births. He refrained from destruction of life and eating meat, and even tabooed certain vegetables, These early Ionian or Orphic philosophers of Asia Minor depreciated the body in comparison to the soul.61 In pointing out these facts, Rawlinson himself admits that the ideas seems to refer to the Jainas or the Buddhists, but that they could not possibly refer to Buddhism which originated with Gautama Buddha, even the Buddha himself, never refrained from eating meat, while tabooing even certain vegetables is
55 Jain Gazette, Aug. 1906, p. 13; Jain, J.P., op. cit., pp. 17-18. 56 Ibid. ; Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol I, p. 460 ; Vol II, p. 28 ; Jaina Siddhanta
Bhaskar, XIV, 2, p. 13. 57 Cf. J.W. MacCrindle's Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian. 58 Beal's Siyuki, I, p. 55. 59 The Indian Sect of the Jainas.
Cf. Jain Gazette, Aug. 1906, p. 13. 61 H. G. Rawlinson's India in European Literature and Thought', The Legacy of
India (1937), pp. 3-6.
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