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that which removes (galayadi) impurities (malaim); or (2) that which brings (Jādi) happiness (mangam sokkham). The Pañcāstikāya-Tatparyavṛtti-tika20 enumerates several objects considered auspicious (mangala) by worldly people and seeks to prove that they are mangala only because of their similarity to particular qualities of the liberated soul. Sesame seeds (siddhartha) are mangala, for example, only because their name reminds us of the siddhas (the perfected beings). A full pitcher (pürṇa-kumbha) is mangala only because it reminds us of that arhat who is endowed with perfect bliss. Similarly a mirror (mukura) is to be considered an auspicious object only because it resembles the omniscient cognition of the Jina.
ASPECTS OF JAINOLOGY VOL-VII
The Jainas are emphatic in their assertion that only ascetics-namely those who follow the Jaina mendicant laws are truly auspictious (mangala). These are considered to be four holy objects (cattari mangalam) in which a layman takes refuge for his spiritual salvation. They are: (1) the arhat or Jina, i.e. one who is worthy of worship of (2) the siddha: one who has accomplished his goal, by becoming free from embodiment; (3) the sadhu, or Jaina mendicant; and, finally, dharma, the sacred law taught by the kevalin: i.e. one who is isolated from the karmic bonds. The formula is also called mangalika and is chanted regularly by the Jaina laity and mendicants together with another sacred formula, the Panca namaskara mantra, or salutations to the five holy beings: namely, the arhat, the siddha, the acarya. the upadhyaya (mendicant teacher), and the sidhu. At the end of this ancient formula they finally recite a verse (of unknown date) in which it is asserted that this five-fold salutation which destroys all evils is preeminent (prathamamangala) among all auspicious things.22
The Indian tradition has unreservedly accepted the holiness of the ascetic because of his renunciation of worldly possessions. But it is doubtful that he was ever considered to be an auspicious (Subha) sight, especially in the context of such festive
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occasions as the celebration of marriage, or the beginning of a new business venture. While the ascetic might have represented suddha the purity associated with the transcendental practices which led to moksamangala was reserved originally only for those worldly, meritorious activities (punya) which led to the three puruşarthas of dharma, artha, and kama. The Buddhists and Jainas attempted to assimilate the ascetic ideal into mangala not by degrading the Suddha, but instead by raising mangala to a new status which incorporated both the worldly subha and the supramundane suddha.
In this new scheme, anything which was not śuddha was considered to be aśuddha: activities which were not productive of salvation. However, this aśuddha was subsequently subdivided into the mundane pure (subha) and the mundane impure (asubha). i.e., the dichotomies of good and evil, wholesome and unwholesome, which were only conducive to worldly happiness and unhappiness. Thus, for the Jainas, (mangala) came to refer both to the transcendental (Suddha), as well as to that portion of the mundane sphere which was pure (subha). A similar pattern seems to be operating in the Theravadin Buddhist division of the meditational heavens into the Suddhavasa and Subhakinha23 The former is "the pure abodes," inhabited by the anagamins who attain to arhatship from that abode in that very life, whereas the latter is the abode of Brahmas: beings who. however exalted. will return to the cycle of transmigration.
Accordingly, the Jainas begin with the repudiation of innate sacredness of material objects but allow that an association with "truly" holy (mangala) might render them auspicious (Subha). The Jaina refusal to allow the integration of the Brahmana in their caste system seems consistent with their rejection of category called "the auspicious" (mangala) independent of the wordly pure (Subha) and the transcendentally pure (suddha).
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