Aspects of Brahmanical Influence On Jaina Mythology

Author(s): Shaktidhar Jha
Publisher: Bharat Bharti Bhandar

Page 92

Aspects of Brahmanical Influence on the Jain Mythology
people being unfamiliar with those crops so long were very much apprehensive of their injurious <ffect Under the circumstances they were very reluctant, though starving, to utilise them as their 'foods Thus, pressed between the two horns of dilemma, they approach Nabhi for seeling redress of their misery Then the latter enlightened them on the property and use of different varieties of harmless and nourishing corns He also imparted them the knowledge of discriminating between the poisonous and non-poisonous varieties of plants. The people, thus instructed in the use of various cereals grown wild, heaved a sigh of relief and began to live peacefully in the changed environment During the period they also learnt the art of pottery
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Now, when divested of its mythological cloak, the Manoantara account as given in the fore-going pages remains nothing but a description of the social evolution and reads very much like a disquisition of the modern sociologists For, the above account, studied critically together with the Brahmanical epicPuranic statements40, irrevocably shows that men of the most ancient period were solely dependent, for their sustenance, on wild roots, fruits and berries This dependence on the natural means of subsistence must have continued undisturbed for some time But with the growth of population within the area, the natural supply must have fallen short of people's demand, which must have given rise to the struggle for the
teen types of domestic and wild trees, plants, creepers and herbs, and to the suffering men those served as substitutes for the extinct Kalpaorksas Vayu, 8 128-135, Mārka 49 55-63
39 MP 190-206
40 नहि पूर्व विसर्गे वै विषमे पृथिवीतले । प्रविभाग पुरारणा वा ग्रामारणा वापि विद्यते ॥ न शस्यानि न गोरक्षा न कृषिनं वणिक्पथ । चाक्षुपस्यान्तरे पूर्वमेवमासीत् पुरा किल ॥ वैवस्वतेऽन्तरे तस्मिन् सर्वस्यैतस्य सम्भव | ममत्वं यत्र यत्रामीद् भूयस्तस्मस्तदेव हि । तत्र तत्र प्रजास्ता वै निवसन्ति स्म सर्वदा । ग्राहार- फलमूलन्तु प्रजानामभवत् किल । कुछ व तदा तासामित्येवमनुशुश्रुम ।
-Vayu, 62 170-74