Agam 05 Ang 05 Study Of Bhagvati Vyakhya Prajnapti Sutra

Author(s): Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 197

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in the post-canonical literature relevant to lay Jaina conduct, and the fifteen forbidden jobs make their precise appearance in the Sravaka Avasyaka IV.7. The canonical authors began to show their interest in the Ajivikas in the age of story texts, e.g., in the Upasakada'sa, when the Ajivika school was in decline but the Jainas entered the final stage of church construction. In all probability, these lay Jaina rules of abstinence from eating five udumbara fruits and prohibition from engaging in fifteen professions were borrowed from the Ajivika school. The lay Jainas must have also been bound by some similar rules by that time, but which were not yet formalized. We place this text in the early fifth canonical stage.
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Material relevant to the rules of lay conduct is not at all rich in the Bhagavati, but can be supplemented by the abundant stories composed for the benefit of householders. This holds true likewise for the other canonical texts composed in the fourth-fifth stages, and it is in the post-canonical period that the minute injunctions and prohibitions relevant to lay conduct were laid down. The Jaina canonical texts of the early age totally neglected the problems of laymen, probably because MV expected extraordinarily austere ascetic practice from his followers by absolutely condemning the value of worldly life. There is a strong undercurrent here insisting that Jainism, which stands on strict ahimsa practice, is primarily a religion for ascetics.
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As we have noted in Ch. I, Sec.1, the Buddhist monks adopted the settled life as early as the 4th century B.C., which naturally prompted earlier education of the laity and the formulation of the rules of lay conduct. The Jaina monks, strict followers of MV's teachings, kept on wandering around from place to place without settling down in one place, except in the rainy season. Frequent and long lasting contact between lay Jainas and ascetics began at Mathura as archaeological remains show, thenceforth the Jaina monks must have began to show a serious concern for establishing lay rules and producing lay literature. Thus the process of the education of the laity and the formulation of lay rules took a dilatory course for the Jainas.