Adda Or Oldest Extant Dispute Between Jains And Heretics

Author(s): W B Bollee
Publisher: W B Bollee

Page 19

ADDA OR THE OLDEST EXTANT DISPUTE BETWEEN JAINS AND HERETICS
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Vippariyāsa-m-eva: viparyayam evôdāhared (...) yadivā viparyāsa iti madônmatta-pralāpavad ity uktam bhavati (T II 156b 4f.). The indeclinable viparyāsam in Sa. means 'alternately' (MW) which does not fit here and thus excludes udāhadam as a supplement. Therefore I have taken the word as a nominative.
(An elehant ascetic speaks)
2, 6, 52
samvaccharenâvi ya egam egam bānena māreu mahā-gayam tu sesāna jīvāna day'-atthayāe vāsam vayam vitti pakappayāmo
d: L: vittim
ONCE ANNUALLY WE KILL ONE BIG ELEPHANT WITH AN ARROW OUT OF PITY FOR THE OTHER LIVING BEINGS AND LIVE FOR A YEAR ON IT
Avi: api-sabdāt șan-māsena (T II 156b 10). the ascription of this stanza to the hatthi-tāvasā is based - apart from the contents - on N 190 and is not canonical. In the Siddhanta this class of “ascetics" is mentioned in a standard list at Aup $ 74 etc. In his CIP I (1990: 80f.) Norman discussed their identity in connection with ibbha. His cautious facit was that hatthi-tävasas were perhaps identical with the latter and possibly Buddhists, but more likely Ajīvikas (loc. cit., p. 81). I cannot see very well a reason for either of these to worship elephants, 27 which recluses would not do anyway, let alone eat them. 28 Yet before actually eating an elephant they could first have sacrificed the animal. Handiqui 1949: 377 states that at the Vedic pundarīka sacrifice an elephant was killed, but gave no reference. 29 “It is evident that much of the information of Jain writers in regard to Vedic rites was based on hearsay (...). Their statements are no doubt mala fide". 30 The pundarīka of which Jones31 says: "there is no clue as to their32 nature” in fact is a Soma sacrifice as attested by the Pañcavimsa-brāhmaṇa 22, 18, 7 and Āpastamba ŚS 22.24.8.33 Perhaps, however, the sect in question here can be identical with the hatthivattika34 and the hasti-vratas mentioned in another Buddhist text, viz. Lalit 248, 21, in the cpd. Go-vrata-mrga