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MAHĀVĪRA. HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
simply told that the upholders of the first cannot lead to knowledge, that they cannot reach the truth by themselves, still less teach it to other men. In the Pāli Nikāyas, they are described as prevaricators in their judginents and statements. Whenever they are confronted with two alternatives in thought, appearing to be equally tenable and untenable, they refrain from giving their own judgments and begiu to point to the need of seeking peace by avoiding both the alternatives According to the Uttarādhyayana-Sūtra, the inefficiency of knowledge ' is the real upshot of ajñānavāda ? In the Sūtrakrtānga, the upholders of ajñānavāda are represented as those thinkers who pretending to be clever, reason incoherently, and do not get beyond the confusion of their
ideas 3
The Vinayavāda may be supposed to have been the same doctrine as what is called Silabbataparāmāsa in Pāli The silabbata-parāmāsa is a view of those who maintain that the purity of oneself may be reached through the observance of certain moral precepts (silena) or by means
Sūtrakrtānga, I, I 2 17 2 Uttarādhyayana-Sūtra, XVIII, 23. 3 Sūtrakrtānga, I, 12 2
