Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 45

BRHAT-KATHÄKOŠA
by a king to the Brāhmaṇa. The pessimistic note, so patent in ascetic poetry, appears only in the latest Upanişads.
This ascetic poetry has left its influence on the Mahābhārata and on the Jaina and Buddhistic texts, as it is clear from the Pitāputra-saṁvåda the counterparts of which are found in the Tātaka and in the Uttarădhyayana. The Mahābhārata has got many such sections, for instance, Vidurabitavākya (5, 32-40), Dhịtarăştra-sokāpanodana (Striparvan 2-7), the famous parable of the 'Man in the Well', which is also present in the Jaina and Buddhist works, the instructions of Dharmavyādha (Vanaparvan 207-16), TulādhāraJājali-samvāda (Santi. 261-64), the section of Yajñanindā (XII, 272 etc.), the Go-kapiliya section (Ibid. 269-71 ), the detachment of Janaka (XI. which is common with Taina and Buddhist texts, the story of hunter and doves (Santi. 143-49), the tale of Mudgala (III. 260 f.), etc. Some of the principles inculcated and some of the moral values advocated in these sections are not quite consistent with the Brahmanical morality already expressed in other contexts.
As to the historical position of this ancient Indian ascetic poetry, the Mahābhārata cannot be the original source, because these sections are found in the latest stratum ; so many of these discourses may have existed independently before they were taken up in the Mahābhārata. In conclusion Winternitz says, "I am inclined to think that ascetic poetry and the peculiar view of life expressed in it, first arose in an old form of Yoga which was merely a system of ethics and a practical theory of redemption, that could as easily be combined with Samkhya, as with Buddhist and Taina teaching. Both Samkhya and Yoga though taken up into the folds of orthodox Brāhmaṇism were originally not Brāhmaṇical, but independent of the Veda''. He accepts the position that 'some of the legends and maxims of the ascetic poetry contained in the epic are doubtless borrowed from Jaina or Buddhistic texts'. As to the common legends and maxims, there are two possibilities : "the original may have been either Buddhist or Jain, or the parallel passages may all go back to the same source, an older ascetic literature, that probably arose in connection with Yoga or Sāṁkhya-Yoga teaching”.
Though the approach is slightly different, there is much common ground between the Ascetic literature discussed above and the Magadhan religion outlined by me: but for the geographical bias of the latter, both the terms connote nearly the same stock of ideas. Unfortunately the works of sophists like Mankhali Gosāla, Pūraņa Kassapa, etc. have not come down to us. In the ancient Indian literature that has come down to us, one can say without hesitation, in view of the nature of the legends and the ethico-religious outlook outlined by Winternitz, that Jaina and Buddhistic literatures are the major custodians of ascetic poetry and Jainism and early Buddhism are the best representatives of the Magadhan religion.
1
This is a short summary of an excellent paper 'Ascetic Literature in Ancient India' by Winternitz in his Some Problems of Indian Literature, Calcutta 1925.