Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

SR No.: 006725
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 170
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 147

On the Ajivikas
119
from people when they were eating, lest they should go short or be disturbed. He did not accept food collected in time of drought.... He did not accept food where a dog was standing by or flies were swarming round lest they lose a meal. He did not eat fish or meat, nor use intoxicants." But A.L. Basham finds it difficult to accept it as the habits of the 'members of the organized Ājivika community' (ITD., pp. 118ff). It seems to be the general feature of the art of begging practised by all ascetics irrespective of any particular religious community, and not by the Ajivika alone. "Abhayadeva's commentary on Aupaprika.
bid The continuation of this kind of penance was in practice among the ascetics of the Tamil region in the fourteenth century AD. K.R. Srinivasan on the basis of a fourteenth century work (Naccinarkkiniyar's commentary on the early Tamil grammar, Tolkeppivam) mentions the existence of such category of ascetics who perform penance in tūli, or funerary urns. Ancient India 11, p. 9; IIDA, pp. 111-12.
65 Sthavüriga-sutru. IV.309; A.C. Sen, Schools and Sects in Jaina Literature, p. 11.
68 Bhagarati-stra, XV, SH. 554, fol. 680; also Abhayadeva's commentary.
67While comment ng on this item it is stated that for six months the ascetic elts only pure food (Suddha-khāimaim); for two months he lies on the ground, for two on wood, and for two on darbha grass (i.e., kusa grass). And on the last night of these six months' penance, two powerful gods, Punnabhadda (Purņabhadra) and Manibhadda (Manibhadra) will appear and with their icy-arms will soothe lis fcvered body. But if the dying ascetic rises above the caresses of these gods, he is saved and this is known as the pure drink.
68 Tittira Jutaka, II, pp. 541-42. 69 Väyu-purüņa, 69, 284 88. 70 HDA, pp. 162-63.
71B.M. Barua, ijirikas; G. Bühler is also of the opinion that the founder of the sect may be placed about 750 BC.
H.C. Raychaudhuri, PHIA, pp. 1871f. 78 HDA, p 145.
"The Mahavamsa, X, records that king Pandukābhaya of Ceylon, the grandfather of Asoka's contemporary Devūnampiya Tissa, built 'a house of Ājivikas' (Ājivikanam geham) at Anuradhapura. Similarly, the prevalence of the Ajivikas in Surattha (Surat in Gujarat) two hurdred years after the Buddha's nirvana is known from a passage in the Peļavasthu (IV 3, p. 57).
75 Di vyivadāna, pp. 3701. 78 Vamsattha-ppakasini, I, p. 190. 71CII, I, p. XXXV. 78CII, 1, pp. 13111.
CII, I, p. 136; II, pp. 15-16. 80 El. II, p. 272. 81ERE, I, p. 267, B'IA, XLI. pp. 286-90. 83HDA, pp. 149-50. 8'CHII pp. 18117. "IA, XX, pp. 36111.