Jain Journal 1970 10

SR No.: 520020
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 50
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

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nearest possible corrections from the data available uptodate. This chapter can claim the credit for a thorough-going research work complete in itself.
JAIN JOURNAL
Chapters five to nine deal with the lives of the two Masters including some of their previous lives, birth, and initiation; preparation; austerities and tolerance and attainment of omniscience respectively. These are lucid and interesting narratives. These chapters bring out to the fore the striking parallelism in the lives, the teachings, their previous births and the myths that surrounded the two great Masters. No wonder, some of the earlier scholars confused them for an identical figure.
The subsequent chapters-ten to sixteen-account for the spread of their teachings and followings: the apostles, disciples, lay-followers, royal patronage and the disciples that turned hostile. There is much material in these chapters to whet the appetities of research scholars. Some of the narrations are rather more detailed than are strictly warranted in this type of work. The narratives about Candana and Visakha are two examples. There are also some very faint glimpses of partiality towards the Mahavira ;-for instance when he discusses the improbability of number of disciples and lay followers. He has examined in some detail the respective claims to the royal patronage, particularly that of Srenika-Bimbisara and Kunika-Ajatasatru. Much useful light has been thrown on the subject.
The codes of conduct are discussed in the chapter seventeen under three heads the duties, the prohibitions and punishments. It brings out the characteristics of the two disciplines: the relentless dedication to the code of conduct which is spelled out in great and unambiguous detail and which at times stands stark in its extreme austerity, in case of the Jainas (Nirgranthas), and a comparatively milder code prescribed by the Buddha. The author, however, could have avoided the detailed mention of punishment for sex-delinquency among monks and nuns. These are vulnerable to hostile and perverted interpretations, which he himself is not slow to recognise.
One of the longest chapters-the eighteenth is dedicated to the accounts of the Mahavira and the Jainas as they appear in the Buddhist scriptures. There are fiftyone such mentions (texts in original Pali are also appended). One would be perfectly justified to doubt that such passages would be uttered by the Buddha or even by any of his disciples while he was living-these are so naive, shallow, misinformed and malicious! Both the Masters are credited with aversion to enter into