________________
The Main features of Mahåvira's contributions
59
began to speak of a person committing a karma (karma karoti) or a person being touched by a karma (karamaņā sprştah). Lastly, the search was made for an active voice usage expressing the same idea as 'karmaṇā sprstah', and the phrase "karma badhnāti' (binds down a karma) was the outcome.”
Now certain vestages of this primitive belief in vaira are clearly recognized in the Acara I-Sūtrakrta I. The term vaira (vera in Prākệt) occurs several times in these texts, of which the following sentences relevant to violence make the best sense if the term vaira is understood in the sense of the efficacy of retribution.
Acara I. 3. 2. 181 avi se hāsam-asajja, hamtā ņamdīti mannati/alam bā
lassa samgeņam veram vaddhati appaņo Sütraksta 1. 1. 1. 3 sayam tivāyae pāņe aduva’nnehi ghāyae/ haṇantam va'
ņujāņāi veram vaddhei appaņo I: 10. 489 pudbo ya chandā iba māņavā u kiriyākiriyam ca pud.
ho ya vāyam/jāyassa bālassa pakuvya deham pavaddhal
veram-asamjayassa. I. 10. 493 sambujjhamāṇe u nare maimam pāvāu appāņa niva
ttaejjā/ himsa-ppasāyāim duhaim mattā verānubandhīņi mahābhayāņi. The word vaira frequently occurring in the earliest Buddhist texts (e. g. Suttanipäta, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, etc.) is employed in the normal sense of hostility as in the cases of Acāra I, 3.1. 168, Sūtrakrta I. 8. 417 and I. 10. 481.
The words srota and asrava are again commonly shared by these early Buddhist and Jaina texts. Buddhists use the word srota in the sense of the stream of taint or kleša and the word asrava in the sense or kaşāya for instance, in the Acara I. 3. 2. 191-92. Adana srota (current of parigraha) is mentioned in the Acara I. 4. 4. 257 and 260, and ādāna srota and atipāta srotas (current of ārambha) in the Ācāra I. 9. 1. 476. Then occurs a peculiar Jaina usage of srota in the sense of upward current, downward current in the Ācāra I. 5. 6. 327-29 as follows:
uddham sotā, ahe sotā, tiriyam sotā viyāhiyā, ete soyā viyakkhāyā, jehim samgam-ti pāsahā/327/āvattam tu uvehãe, ettha viramijja puv
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org