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Uttarajjhajar a-Sutta XIV : U suyārijjam
19
with khire and tilesu we should expect another locative Secondly, the explanation of sattā as the equivalent of Skt sattvāḥ necessitates the taking of sammucchai and nāsai as plurals, i.e. the equivalents of Skt sammürcchanti and nasyanti. We can, however, provide a locative by dividing Charpentier's reading as arañia 'santo, and assuming that the expected Ardha-Māgadhi reading araạie 'santo was replaced by Charpentier's reading as a result of the existence of the word asan in the cty's explanation,
The second problem can possibly be resolved by referring to the Sūyaga. damga where a similar point of view is put forward by another non-Jaina, a sramana or brāhmaṇa : se jahāņāmae kei purise tilehimto tellam abhinivvattitta nam wvadamsejjā ayam, āuso, tellam ayam pinnäe, evam eva n' atthi kei purise uvadamsettaro ayam, āuso, āyā iyam....se jahāņāmae kei purise araņio aggim abhinivattitā ņam unadamsejjā ayam, āuso, araņi ayam aggi, evam eve jāva sariram. evam asante asamvijjamāņe jesim tam asamte asamvijjamāṇe tesim tam su-y- akkhāyam bhavati, anno bhavati jivo annam sariram (Sūy II. 1.16=Suttagame I, pp. 137.38). Jacobi gives a somewhat condensed translation (p. 341) : "As a man presses oil from the seeds of Atasi, and shows the oil and the oil-cake separately, so nobody can show you the soul and the body separately. The same applies also when fire is churned from Araņi-wood. Those who believe that there is and exists no soul, speak the truth.”
A comparison between this passage and v 18 indicates important differences. The speaker in the Sūy passage is saying that it is possible to separate oil from oilseed, or make fire from a fire-stick and show the two separately, but it is not possible to show the soul separately from the body. In v. 18, if we follow Jacobi's translation, the speaker is saying that oil is not in the seed, nor fire in the fire. stick, nor the soul in the body. So Sūy and Utt seem to be contradictory.
This contradiction can be resolved by assuming that we should read not arania 'santo, as just decided, but arania santo. We should then translate : "Like fire being in the fire-stick". It would seem that the reading in Utt, with a negative asanto or (with prodelision) 'santo, and Devendra's explanation of this reading, are in fact based upon the Suy passage. The Utt passage states (if this suggestion is correct) that the soul is in the body, just as oil is in the seed and fire in the firestick, and if you destroy one you destroy the other with it. In the Sūy passage it is stated that it is possible to take oil from the oil-seed and make fire with the firestick and show them separately, but this cannot be done with the soul and the body,
The reason for this is that one and the same illustration has been used to serve two different purposes, and other examples can be given of illustrations being used in this way. It is clear that Devendra, or the cty tradition he was following,
1. I have dealt with another example in “Kriyāvāda and the existence
of the soul” in Buddhism and Jainism (ed. H. C. Das et al.), Cuttack 1976, Part II, pp. 4-12.
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