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 95

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA IV With these few words about the reformed church of Mahavira we shall now very briefly deal with some of the most important schisms in the Jaina church. And we shall in conclusion place a few considerations before the reader as to how the Jaina community could manage to survive all these insurrections in the Samgha of Lord Mahavira As usual with the life of all prophets and reformers unfortunately the church of Mahavira had also to face in its own days and afterwards a group of heterodox teachers, including those that are known to the Jainas as the seven NinhagasSanskrit Ninhavas 1 - meaning those who propound somethmg else than what the Jina has meant. The seven Ninhadas are Jamali, Tisagutta, Asadha, Asvamitra, Ganga, Chalue, and Goshtamahila Of these the most prominent and also the most dangerous rival of Mahavira was Gosala Mankhaliputta-who is evidently identical with Mankhali Gosalo mentioned in the Pali Sutras as one of the "six heretical teachers" and opponents of Lord Buddha 3 Little is known about him and about the sect of the Ajivikas of which he was the founder. We are practically in the dark "regarding the doctrines and practices of that ascetic community, which would seem to have, at one time, rivalled in numbers and importance the two still existing great communities of the Buddhists and Jamas." After Gosala we may just mention Jamali, the son-in-law of Mahavira, Tisagutta, a holy man in the community, and others Gosala first met Mahavira at Rajagrha, and there he at once became his disciple He was called Gosala because he was born in a cowshed. His father was a mendicant friar, and all these 1 EC . . . The funer .. Au -dvasyaha-Satra, v 778, p. 811, W TRUE ... fon Merutunge, Prcarasrenz, JSS,1, Nos 8-4, Appendix, PP 11-12 Bhagavati-Shifra (Agamodaya Samata), n, pp 410-480 * Jacobi, Kalpa-Stiina, Int. pl. * Hoemle, Urxasaga-Dasao, u, Int, P C Buhler, IA, XX, P 862 "In the fourteenth year of Mahavira's office as a prophet his nephew and son-in11, Jamali, headed an opposition against him, and similarly, two years afterwards, a boly man in the community, named Tisagutta, made an attack Both these merely concerned infics Jamili, however, persisted m his herctical opinions till his death Charpentier CIT,1, p. 103 Kalpa-Sutra, Subodhtha-Tiha, 702 -Gosala, son of a professional mendicant, Sinnhhal, and ins wife Bhadda He saw the light of day in the cowshed of the wealthy Bmhmana Gob hula at Savatthi" Sustri (Baneru), J BORS, VIP 55 58