Shraman Bhagvana Mahavira Part 1

SR No.: 008001
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ratnaprabhvijay, D P Thaker
Publisher: Parimal Publication
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 650
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English, Biography, History, & Religion
File Size: 15 MB

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by one sect, and to another set by the rival sect. e. g. Buddha, Tathāgata, Sugata, and Sambuddha are common titles of Śākya Muni, and are only occasionally used as epithets of Mahavira. The case is exactly reverse with regard to Vira and Mahavira, the usual titles of Vardhamāna. More marked still is the difference with regard to Tirtha-kara-meaning prophet with the Jainas-but founder of an heretical sect with the Bauddhas. What then may be safely inferred from the peculiar choice which either sect made from these epithets and titles? That the Jainas borrowed them from the older Buddhists? I think not. For, if these words had once been fixed as titles or gained some special meaning beyond the one warranted by etymology, they could have been adopted or rejected. But it was not possible that a word which had acquired some special meaning should have been adopted but used in the original sense by those who borrowed it from the Buddhists. The most natural construction we can put on the facts is, that there was and is, at all times, a number of honorific adjectives and substantives applicable to persons of exalted virtue. These words were used as epithets in their original meaning by all sects; but some were selected as titles for their prophets-a choice in which they were directed either by the fitness of the word itself or by the fact that such or such a word was already appropriated by heterodox seots as a title for their highest authority. Thus, the etymolo gical meaning of Tirtha-kara is founder of a religion,-prophet and accordingly this title was adopted by the Jainas and other sects, whereas the Buddhists did not adopt it in this sense but in that of an heterodox or heretical teacher, showing thereby their enmity towards those who used Tirtha-kara as an honorific title. Again, Buddha is commonly used in about the same sense as Mukta-that is a liberated soul-and in this meaning it is still employed in Jaina writings, whilst with the Buddhists, the word has become a title of their prophet The only conclusion which might be forced from these facts, is that the Buddhists at the time when they formed their terminology were opponents of the Jainas, hut not vice versa.
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