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SVETAMBARA CANONICAL LITERATURE
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later notice that in another Jaina text, composed in the early centuries of the Christian era, there is an exhaustive and valuable list of coins current in India in pre-Gupta times. This work also refers to a number of musical instruments.14 It is also of interest to note that, unlike the other Jaina texts, Brāhmaṇas are mentioned first in a list of four castes given in this canonical work. 15 It appears that the earlier Jaina canonical writers had a less affected attitude towards the Brāhmaṇas than the later writers.
There is a short description in this text of Nālandā," which as we learn from this work, was a prosperous town, a description confirmed by the account, given in the Buddhist texts.17 It further refers to a householder called Lepa who was in possession of a bathing hall called Seṣadravya, which was situated to the north-east of Nālandā. As the name suggests, the hall was built of materials not used for building houses. At this town Gautama Indrabhūti, the famous disciple of Lord Mahāvīra met Udaka Peḍhälaputta of the Medārya gotra, who was a follower of Lord Parsvanatha. The conversation18 that took place between the two can be compared with the dialogue between a follower of Pärśva and Gautama Indrabhuti recorded in the twenty-third chapter of the Uttaradhyayana, which will be discussed later. From this conversation we further learn that some of the followers of Gautama Indrabhuti were also known as Kumaraputras, which probably indicates that they belonged to aris
tocratic families.
The Sutrakṛtānga, like the Acārānga, contains beautiful and thought-provoking philosophical expressions that are in no way inferior to those of the Pali Buddhist texts. The doctrines of Gośāla and Buddha have been cleverly refuted by Ardraka, a follower of Mahavira in the second half of this text.50 It should however be added that the views of other schools have not been properly presented in this text. Such distortions of the philosophical views of other teachers are common in the religious works of almost all schools of thought in India. The Pali Buddhist texts show that the Buddha had absolutely no deference for other teachers, and he had branded all of them as ignorant and unworthy of serious attention.51 I have already said that with the exception of a few passages, nowhere in the Jaina canon have the Buddhists been attacked directly, but the poor Ajivikas have been mercilessly assailed by both Buddha and Mahāvīra.
The Sthānāngasutra,52 which is the third Anga text, unlike the first two, does not say anything about the teaching of Mahavira. On
