Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 279

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA the Angas combined together constitute a perfect treasure-house for the coriect understanding of innumcrable groups of conceptions and of the Siddhanta. Coming to the Bhagavati, the fifth Anga of the Jainas, we find that it is onc of the most important and most sacred texts of the Jaina Siddhanta. Its importance, from the standpoint of Jaina history, is second to none In our previous chapters about the period of Parsva and Mahavira, and about their contemporaries, we liave referred to it more than once. Besides this the work contains a circumstantial and complicated exposition of the Jaina dogma, partly in the form of catechism and partly in the form of legendary dialogues (rtikasasamvada). Of the legends, especially important are those which treat of the predecessors and contemporaries of ---Jamali and Gosala Makkhaliputta--to whom is dedicated the fifteenth book of the Bhagavali i "All these legends," observes Weber, "give us the impression of containing traditions which have been handed down in good farth. They offer, therefore, in all probability (especially as they frequently agree with the Buddhist legends) most important evidence for the period of the life of Mahavira himself 2 The Nayadhammakahao, or the sixth Anga of the Srddhanta, brings us to the narrative literature of the Jainas. It is a collection of tales or parables designed to serve as moral examples, and, as with almost all the narrative literature of India, the Katha literature of the Jainas also serves didactic purposes. At the beginning of his homily a Jaina preacher usually gives, in a few prose words or verses, the topic of his sermon (Dharmadesana), and then goes on to tell an interesting tale of considerable extent, as the most effective means of spreading the doctrines of Mahavira among his followers. According to Hertel the literary form of these Jaina sermons not only resembles that of the Buddhist Jataka, but is also highly Diwalasangami Ganipidagam This deals partly with the attacks which it was subjected to in the past, wuch it now experiences in the present and will experience in the future, pertly with the devoted acquiescence wluch is its lot to meet with in these three perros and oonoltrdes with the declaration of its certain existence for ever Re hagdi na i, Saya na 'Uhi, na hayri na bhauissata -Ibad To this Weber makes the following note According to Abhayadevasun attacks at the hands of Jamab, Goshthimahula, eto 1e the representatives of the seven schismg-Iid, 06 C Winternitz, op aut. pp 800-801 " of the legends which are adduced nere) those olam & special interest wuch deal with predecessors or contemporaries of Mahavira, with the opinion of his heterodox opponents and with their conversion Yeber 1.4 , XLXP 64 * Ibid, p 85. 228