________________
Arbat Pārśva and Dharanendra Nexus
index, p. 945. My examination of the Sthānanga and the Samavāyānga texts has revealed that, stylistically speaking, only very small portions now survive therein, particularly in the Sthānanga, of the period of the Pāțaliputra Synod (c. 300 B.C. ). The rest largely embodies the highly developed material extracted from the āgamas and iso-āgamic works composed between the 1st cent.
B.C. to early 4th cent. A.D. 8. A few centuries after Arhat Vardhamana, the friars, under some compulsions now not clearly
known, had started using (while walking in public?), a piece of cloth (colapattaka?) for concealing their private parts (as truthfully demonstrated by the figures of male ascetics carved on the pedestals of the Jina images from Mathurā of the Kuşăņa period); they also kept a small gocchakabroom and a single bowl to which sanction apparently had been accorded in the late Mauryan and post-Mauryan monastic rules of the Northern tradition. Thus had derived, from the original acela-Nirgrantha sect of Nātaputta Vardhamāna Jina, the alpacela-Nirgrantha sect. Most of the existing post-Mauryan to Saka-Kuşāna period ägamas apparently had originated within the fold
of this sect. 9. An earlier portion of the Acārānga Book I, the larger portion of the Sūtrakrtānga Book I, and
a little less than half the number of chapters in the Uttarādhyayana-sútra plausibly had belonged to the sect of Arhat Vardhamana. Other chapters in the above-noted agamas together with the larger portion (Chapters 3-10) of the Daśavaikālika-sútra are somewhat later, the composer of the sutra's surviving original portions was Arya Svayambhūva (For details see my paper, "The Earliest Portions of Daśavaikälika-Sūtra," Researches in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy (Essays
in Honour of Professor Alex Wayman), Delhi 1993, pp. 179-93.) 10. There are the Süryaprajñapti, the Candraprajñapti; the larger part of the Brhadkalpasūtra reflects
the rules consistent with the monastic discipline of Pārsva's sect. 11. The svetāmbara as svetapatta sect is first referred to in the Paümacariya of Vimala Súri and in
one of the copper-plate charters of the Kadamba king Mrgeśavarmā (c. last quarter of the fifth century AD) in Karnataka. From the alpacela-Nirgrantha, it was gradually taking shape since at least c. fourth century A.D. through the friars who had eventually turned abbatial monks (caityavāsisādhus) in Lāța (southern Gujarat) and Valabhi area in western Surastra. Whether this was due to the impact, in theory, of the monastic discipline of the surviving Pārsvāpatyiya or the monks of the sect of Pārsva, or was it thanks to the optional monastic rules which permitted wearing
clothes and small essential possessions given priority, needs further investigation. 12. "Ugra" in the southern tradition: (Cf. Trilokaprajnapti 4.) 13. For the details on the sources, see the entry "Pāsa" in the Agamic Index Vol.I Prakrit Proper
Names, pt. 1 (Comp. M. Mehta and K.R. Chandra), L.D. Series No. 28, Ahmedabad 1970, pp. 45253. (According to the southern sources, the name of Pārsva's mother was Brāhmi: Cf. Padmapurana 27 (A.D. 677); and Harivarśa-purāna 60 (A.D. 784); for further details, see Jinendra Varņi, Jainedra Siddhanta kośa, pt. 2, Bhāratiya Jñānapith, New Delhi 1992, p. 380) The explanation offered by the Āvašyaka-niryukti for the appellation "Pārsva" is doubtless unlikely. It states that the Jina's mother in a dream saw a crawling cobra close to (pārsva) her bed and hence the boy-prince, after his birth, was named "Pārsva." (In such an event the appellation "Pārsvanāga" would have
sounded more in accord!) 14. "Dark" in the southern tradition. "Blue" colouration for human skin is only imaginary; "dark",
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
