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 99

JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA on that one who is branded by the Jainas as a false-disciple." This becomes especially so when we know that the very traditions with the help of which we come to such a sweeping conclusion say something contrary to it. The first point that the reputed doctor would like the critic to consider before judging one way or the other is "that the priority of Gosala regarding Jinahood before Mahavira can be established beyond doubt by the history of Mankhaliputta in the Bhagavati, confirmed in some important respects by the history of Mahavira in the Kalpa-Sutra" 1 We wish this point had not been put for the consideration of the critic. It seems as of the writer wants to raise a deliberate misunderstanding about the whole episode. Nowhere in the Sutras, nor anywhere else in the whole of Jaina literature, is Gosala said to have attained Jinahood. What is said, as just remarked, is that Gosala became a self-styled Jina or Tirthankara. "Buddha charged him with incontinency." 8 So also did Mahavira. He is equally emphatic about it In a dialogue in the Sutrakrtanga between Ardraka, a disciple of Mahavira, and Gosala the latter is reported to have said "According to our law an ascetic ... commits no sin ... has intercourse with women,"4 He charges his followers with being "the slaves of women," and says that "they do not lead a life of chastity." 3 How could such a person who had become so notorious with his antinomian doctrines be expected and be said to have attained Jinahood. This sounds particularly strange when, furthermore, the fact of his becoming a Jina is based on the authority of the Jaina canon itself. At another place the writer refers to the six previous births of Gosala, with their particular periods as laid down in the BhagavatiSutra, and concludes. "The Bhagavati account of the past reanimations of Gosala, quaint and fanciful though it is, enables thic luistorian to carry back the history of the Ajivikas for 117 years counted backwards from Gosalo...."6 It seems that the popular tradition of the twenty-seven previous births of Mahavira has Barun, op at,p 18 :fa fauceti watafurit... FETE-Bhagavali-Sutra (Agamodata Samiti), , 139 Cf tasyaha-Sudta, p 21%, Charpentier, op al, p 159 1 CJ. Tocmnle, op af, p 261. Jacobi, S.BT,x ,P 111 ild.np 213, 970 Vijay Rajendm Sun, Abhidhanarajendra, ut , p 103 * Intia, op cit, p7