Jain Journal 1993 04

SR No.: 520110
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 67
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 43

202
JAIN JOURNAL
is eternal, and it has been revealed again and again, in every one of the endless succeeding periods of the world, by innumeral Tirthaikaras. In the present period which is avasarpiņi according to the Jainas, there are 24 Tirthankaras, the first of them was Rşabha and the last three were Aristanemi, Parsvanatha and Mahavira. All these Tirthankaras have reached nirvana at their death. Because of their attainment of moksa, all these Tirthankaras are regarded as ideal man-god (deva) by the Jainas. In order to honour and worship them, the Jainas have erected temples where the idols or images of these 24 Tirthařkaras, the favourite being the first and the last three ones, are found. Some sects, especially a rather recent section of the Svetāmbaras, the Dhundiya or Sthanakavāsips, reject this kind of worship. Except the last two (Pārsvanatha and Mahavira), all the Tirthańkaras belong to mythology rather than to history. But the 22nd Ariştanemi is connected with the legend of Krşņa as his relative. Though Parsvanātha was the real reformer of Jainism, Mahavira gave it a shape in the present form in which we get it in the canonical literature,
III
Historically the Jaina religion is very old, older than Buddhism. In Buddhist literature5 some references to Niggantha-Nătaputta are found, and this is nothing but another name for Jina or Jaina religion. Similarly, the Jaina literature composed at the time of Mahavira contains cross references to Buddha and his vows. In the dialogue of Payāsi and Kumāra Kassapa in the Pāyāsi-sutta of the Dighanikaya (No. 23), the existence of a soul substance is denied by Payasi as it was done by Bauddha himself. A version of this dialogue is also found among the Jainas. In the Upāli-sutta (No. 56) of the Majjhima-nikāya, there is a dialogue between Bauddha and Jaipa with regard to the practice of asceticism. In the Anguttara-nikāya (III. 27) eight powers of people belonging to the different strata of the society are describod, and these are also found in the Thānanga and Samavāyanga suttas of the Jainas. Some of the verses of the Dhammapada are also found in the texts of the Jainas, particularly in the Uttarajjhayana-sutta. The parable of the blind man and the elephant (andha-gaja.nyāya) is also found in the Jaina Syadvāda-mañjari as well as in the Udana (VI. 4).
The idea of a true brahmana is dealt with in the Uttarajjhayanasutta (XXX) as well as in the Sela-sutta (III. 7) of the Sutta. nipäta, in the
5 M. Winternitz, History of Indian Literature, Vol. II, Calcutta, p. 44. Winternitz
thinks that both the sects might have borrowed their ideas from an earlier source.