Story of Nation Buddhist India

SR No.: 035274
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: T Fisher Unwin Ltd
Publication Year: 1916
Total Pages: 356
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 88 MB

Page 164

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
143
Tree of Wisdom, had been such a self-torturer (tāpasa) in the woods on the banks of the Neranjară. Thenceforward he became a Wanderer. It was easy to pass from one career to the other. But they were quite distinct, were spoken of by different names, and in the priestly law-books we find quite different regulations laid down for the Hermits on the one hand, and the Wanderers on the other.'
We have the names of a considerable number of the individuals in both of these classes. And not only the personal names. In those cases when a number of individuals acknowledged the leadership of one teacher, or adhered to the same set of opinions (whether attributed to one teacher or not), they had also corporate names. Thus the members of that Order which we call the Buddhist Order were called Säkyaputtiya Samanas. Each order was called a Sangha. The members of the Sangha which we call the Jain Order were called the Niganthas, “The Unfettered." There was an Order the members of which were called the Ajivakā, the “Men of the Livelihood.” Both of these orders were older than the Buddhist. The Jains have remained as an organised community all through the history of India from before the rise of Buddhism down to to-day. The Ajīvakās still existed as an organised community down to the time of Asoka's grandson Dasaratha, who gave them, as we learn from the inscriptions on the caves, certain cave-hermitages. They have long ago died out. And with the dis
1 The references are collected in Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. pp. 205-212, 221.