________________
Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
(f) The text mentions about the different types of birth places for the hellish, celestials, subhumans and human beings. 2. The existence of the birth places can be proved by the fact that there can be no birth of the living beings without proper development under an enclosure. 3. The experience of pain, pleasure etc. is due to the volitions of worldly soul always karmically associated. The karmas are the materials cause for this experience. However, there may be other instrumental causes like time, location and basic elements etc. 4. Formerly, it seems that birth and birth places were assumed to be nearly equivalent. That is why, eight types of birth places are mentioned in Sthānānga which cover the three birth types as below:
1.
Spontaneous(a-sexual) birth
Living beings born in (1) juices, fermaentaion (ii) sweat (heat and moisture) and (iii) soil [i.e. (iv) plantsspontaneously born] (v) viviparous (vi) oviparous and (vii) un-umbilical (viii) special-bed born ones (hellish and celestials)
Uterine-birth Special-bed birth
3.
This eight-fold categorisation is an advance over the 4-fold Caraka classification. These eight categories have been reduced to three categories, per chance later. 5. It can safely be assumed that the concept of birth places in terms of climatic, temperature and covering conditions must have been a later observational development. The shape-based classification may also be presumed to be contemporary. 6. Currently, many canons describe two categories of birth places- (i) shape-based and (ii) quality based, This text describes only the later ones of nine types. 7. It seems the textual meaning of the word 'Sachitta' as a place with mass involving soul spacepoints does not convey the current meaning of the term. It should denote the climatic conditions existing in the birth place. The non-living or dry character of the special bed birth place is clearly a type of habitat. Correspondingly, the term 'Sacitta' should be taken to mean as 'wet' birth places. If the soul spacepoints are already present there, how could it be possible for
e to serve as receptacle for a new entry? On the other hand, this birth place will always be livingful as living beings are to be born there. There should, thus, be no 'non-livingful' birth place at all.
However, if the presence of watery fluids is taken to be the meaning of the term, it serves to indicate the wet climate. It is commonly known that different plants and other higher animals require different types of environmental conditions (wet or dry) for their nucleation and growth. The term
149
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
