Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

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Amrita
with Gotama the chief disciple of Lord Mahāvīra. So here also we will have to admit that the Jain version of the dialogue is of better authenticity and we can go so far as to assert that it was the Jains who first tried to refute this doctrine of Ajita as being the exact contradictory position of their own theory of the existence of the soul. The Buddhist took this refutation bodily from them even though a little inconsistent with their own vehement denial of a. soul.
Another philosophical discussion common to the two literatures is that about the refutation of the philosophy of Gosāla. In the Jain works we find it stated in the Upāsagadasão 30 and the Bhagavatī31 while in the Samaññaphalasutta 32 of the Digha-Nikāya is found a summary of his views. The life story of Gosāla as found in the Bhagavati Sūtra is not to be met with in the Buddhist works. But the statement of his doctrines is common to both of them in a very similar phraseology. It is just possible that both of them were copying from the works of that sect. But the other alternative is more probable. It can very easily be seen that Gosāla was more intimately connected with Jainism than the Buddhism, even though it is very difficult to decide the exact relation in which he stood. But in view of the fact that his doctrines are taken by him from the Pūrvas and his claim to be the last prophet of Jainism it appears that he represented another line of the school of Pārsva while Mahāvīra succeeded in asserting himself as the true continuer of the orthodox line. So it is more probable that the Jain version had better chances of giving the views of the school of Gosāla in a more authentic form than its rival religion Buddhism.
Apart from these similarities extending over a long incident we have a good many verses33 in common in the works of these two religions. Particularly the Uttarādhyayana and the Sūtrakrtānga show many verses in common with the various books of the Pāli canon like the Dhammapada the Thera and Therī-Gāthās the Suttanipāta and stray verses from the Nikāyas. Dr. Winternitz34 has suggested the solution of such similar verses in the supposition that there existed before both these canons a floating mass of poetry dealing with ascetic life and ideals which was incorporated in the works of both these religions.
Annotations : 1. Keith, Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon. Ch. i. pp. 15-24. 2. Cp. Rhys Davids. Buddhism its History and Literature pp. 187-195. Winternitz,