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Asita-Devala in Isibhasiyai
The text breathes an atmosphere of liberal attitude which may have characterised the early days in the history of Jainism. It pays respect to many thinkers and religious leaders standing outside the Jaina fold by collecting their sayings to form a canonical work. Some of these belonged to the Vedic or Brahmanical tradition. We also find Mamkhaliputta111 (Maskariputra Gośāla) and the Buddhists Mahākāsaval (Mahakasyapa) and Saiputta (Sariputra)-buddha.18 There are, in the text, certain views which could not have been tolerated in later days of Jainism, when orthodoxy had settled down and anything inconsistant with the set doctrines, dogmas and practices could not expect an honourable reference. Section 20 introduces an anonymous utkața-vädin in place of a ri and mentions, with a fair show of approval, his materialism. We have an 'unjinistic' recognition of farming as divva kisi14 and a reference to cosmogonic theories, including one about the origin of the world from water.15 Likewise, orthodox Jainism of later times could not have accepted. the equation of Pariva, Mahavira, and latter's adversary Gosala Maskariputra, alike as pratyekabuddhas, which we find in our text. These 'strange things' in the text explain, according to Schubring, why it fell into 'nearly complete oblivion' and created uncertainty about it in later writings. This is exemplified by the confusion about it in Haribhadra's commentary on the Avassayanijjutti. In it the Isibhäsiyai is identified at one place with the canonical Painna (Prakiryaka) named Devindatthaya (Devendra-stava), and in another18 with the Uttarajjhaya. We already have referred to the later confusion about the number of sections in the text.
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A pointer to the date of the text is the reference to Gosala Maskariputra. The Viyahapannatti (Vyäkkya-prajñapti) (c. 2nd-3rd cent. A. D.) represents him as a renegade disciple of Mahavira for that passage, but in our text he does not suffer from any such humiliation. On the contrary he enjoys an honoured position as a praty ekabuddha. This transformation in his status in Jaina perception must have taken a long period. Thus, the Isibhäsiyai is to be placed a few. centuries before the selfsame (and other passages are similar in vein and style) in the Viyahapannatti.
The emphasis on ethical thought is the main characteristic of the text. It brings out the common points in the ethical ideas of the early religions of different traditions. The metaphysical and doctrinal details and differences, which dominate later sectarian and scholastic texts, did not receive any importance from the author of this text. This also is a significant pointer to the early date of the text.
Our text purports to collect the views of ris. Generally the word rsi is used It is supposed to be synonymous with muni. But, in our text it is employed in the special sense of a pratyekabuddha. A pratyekabuddha is a person, who, having realised the highest knowledge, acquired the status of the buddha for himself but, unlike the buddha, did not found a school or community. That the
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