________________
THE ASCENDENCY & ECLIPSE OF BHAGAVĀN MAHĀVĪRA’S CULT 299
do so for some time for the benefit of humanity, and that the predominant feature of the dharma was 'pāramahamsya', a life of perfect detachment from social environment.
We are not quite sure, however, whether the above-said nirgranthas were named so during the life-time of Sanatkumāra and his disciples; but it is quite certain that they were referred to as such in post-Vedic Hindu tradition, and the Purāņa has only recorded that tradition.
Ammanan (a naked man) is also another significant term used in Tamil literature for a nikkanta.1
5. Sramaņa connotes in Sanskrit a mortifier of one's flesh, and Samana was its Tamilisation. Devotees of Murukan, (Lord Subrahmanya), and Korravai, (Goddess Durgā), often flayed themselves with whips, or walked on red-hot embers, or pierced their bodies with hundred spikes (vels). These had been practised as rituals from time immemorial in the land of the Tamils. These facts clearly indicate that the Nirgrantha and Sramana cults had their prototypes, not only in the post-Vedic Aryan society, but also among the ancient Tamilians. These latter, however, did not develop into distinct denomination marked off the rest of the community.
6. Sittar (Skt. siddha), and aivar (a group of five persons), were also occasionally used in Tamil literature to denote the community of Jaina hermits. The famous 'sittanavāsal' is but a corruption of 'sittan-vasati'. "Siddha' in Sanskrit has many meanings, but the Tamil sittar conveys two meanings only; viz. Faina recluses and the inventors and developers of the siddha system of medicine. There had, however, been many instances of over-lapping of the two meanings, because many of the Jaina hermits were medicinemen also.
1.
The 'Mahābhārata', (XII-3-46-16- to 20), refers to the existence of a distinct work on Tyāga-Šāstra, known as “Samyoga-Vadha”, composed for the guidance of the Brāhmaṇas of the Bhallavi Śākhā.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
