Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 290

262
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
served the injunctions of Pârávanâtha concerning dress, which Pârsvanâtha admitted, but Mahavira on the contrary entirely rejected; therefore the adherents of the predecessor are called Svetámbara, i. e. white-dressed, whilst those of Mahavira are, on account of their nudity, called Digambaras.
Afterwards Mahavira roamed through various regions of Central India, but especially through the countries on the middle course of the Gangâ, in the neighbourhood of which the town Kau é âm bî is situated. Here he devoted himself during nearly eleven years to the strictest asceticism and to the hardest privations, whereby he attained the highest degree of wisdom and sanctity. Thus he awakened the envy and hatred especially of the Brahmans in Magadha. Three sons of the Brahman Va subhuti, born in this country, of the Gautama family, called Indrabhati, Agnibhuti, and Vâyubhûti, imagined they could refute the doctrines of Mahavira, but were vanquished by him and became the most zealous adherents" of their former antagonist.† The latter betook himself after this brilliant success to the court of king Hastipala in Apå papuri. or Pâpapuri or Pavapuri, in the vicinity of the ancient capital Rajagriha, where, at the age of 72 years, he terminated his eventful life. After his death his corpse was solemnly burnt.
If Pârévanatha is to be considered as the real founder of the Jaina doctrine, Vardha mâna or Mahavira must be regarded as the propagator thereof. His chief tenets were that he attributed a real existence to jiva, the soul, and supposed that it imparts life to individual bodies, and is destined to bear all the pains and troubles of migration through many various forms, until it gets liberated from these bonds
On the position of this town see Ind. Alt. III. 200, note 2.
[SEPTEMBER, 1873.
through the deepest insight into the true nature of things and by the most perfect virtue.§ He further maintained that matter is a reality, and thereby rejected two fundamental doctrines of Buddhism, according to which all existences are without contents and substance, and the first cause of all things is avidya, i. e. non-existence and untruth. Mahavira acquired many adherents, as the following statements will prove. The number of the holy men or Sádhus amounted to 14,000, and of the Sadhvis or holy women to 36,000; the Sramanas, i. e. pious men acquainted with the sacred scriptures called Púrva, amounted to 300. The number of the Avadhijnánin, orsuch priests as are acquainted with the limits of the injunctions was just as considerable. There were 700 Kevalin, i. e. pious men who abstained from works and devoted themselves 'entirely to contemplative life, and 500 Manovid, i. e. possessors of wisdom. By the name Vádin, men are designated who are skilled in carrying on disputations: their number was 400. The number of Śrávakas or laymen amounted to 51,000, and that of the Srávikás or women of this kind was stated to be 300,000, an evident exaggeration. Of the eleven most prominent disciples of Mahavira, only Indrabhati and Sudharma or Sudharman survived him. In favour of the view that Mahavira was the real propagator of the Jaina doctrine, it may be adduced that the writer of the Satrunjayamahatmya makes him the author of his book. That this doctrine was propagated from Magad ha, or, if it so pleases, from Southern Bihar, to the other parts of India, becomes almost certair from the circumstance that Mahavira botained his most important triumphs just in that country, and that he, as well as his predecessor Pârávanâtha, died and was buried there. To
Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 256 seqq., who communicates several statements about these three and the cight remaining disciples of Mahavira from the commentary of Hemachandra to his Dictionary, and justly notices that Buchanan Hamilton is mistaken in assuming, in the Trans. of the R. As. S. I. p. 538, that Indrabhuti, who is, on account of his descent of course, also called Gautama, is no other than Gautama Buddha himself. Hemachandra enumerates, I. v. 31 seqq. p. 7, the 11 Ganddhipas or presidents of the assemblies, who bear the following names:-Indrabhuti, Agnibhati, and Vayubhati: these three brothers were Gautamas; Mandits and Mauryaputra were step-brothers and respectively descendants of the Vedic Rishis Vaishtha and Kasyapa; Vyakta, Sudharma, Akampits, Achalabhratri, Metarys, and Prabhasa,
were likewise descendants of ancestors of Brahmanic familien Kalpasútra, vi. p. 84 seqq.; Colebrooke, Misc. Es. says, II. p. 215, and Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 261. The statement here made, that Mahavira died 1669 years before the conversion of the Chalukya king Kum rapala to the doctrine of the Jainas, is just as worthless as the information that the Kalpasútra was first publicly read 980 years after that event; this monarch began, according to Ind. Alt. III. p. 567, to reign in 1174, so that Mahavira would have died 495 years before Christ.
Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 259.
See Ind. Alt. II. 461.
Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 260. He properly observes that Sadhu is not a general name for Jaina priests, but only for one division of them; this conception of the name is preferable to that given by J. Stevenson (see above, p. 260, n. §). On the title Purva see above, p. 199.