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12
A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
the world. Nothing more is indicated in the canonical texts regarding his early life. Only from some late texts do we learn that he married a woman named Prabhāvati.
The Kalpasūtra then goes on to say that after practising penance for 83 days Pārsva obtained omniscience. Thereafter, we are told, he remained a kevalin for 70 years, dying at the age of 100 on the summit of Sammeya mountain. The round figure of 100 is also suspect. We should remember that the Kalpasūtra, which contains the earliest biography of this great prophet, was in all probability, written 500 years after his death. Even so one is prepared to believe that Pārsva had a fairly long life and died in the fulness of years.
The Kalpasūtra does not give us any idea of Pārsva's doctrine, but we have sufficient information in some other canonical texts about his teachings, and a number of these were composed before the Kalpasūtra.
The celebrated Uttarādhyayanasūtra (ch. 23) records a very moving conversation between Keśin a follower of Pārsva's church and Indrabhūti, a disciple of Mahāvīra. In Kesin's words we learn that Pārśva enjoined only four vows and allowed an upper and undergarment. This conversation took place in the city of Śrāvasti where Kesin arrived, we are told, with a large number of his associates. We further learn from this conversation between the two monks that there was no fundamental difference between the two Teachers, Pārśva and Mahāvīra, the only difference being that the law of Mahāvīra recognized 5 vows, one more than Pārsva's. Also, while Pārsva allowed the use of clothing, Mahavira himself went about naked. That Pārsva's followers (called Samanas) were almost everywhere during Mahāvīra's lifetime is testified to by some other references to his followers in the older texts. The Bhagavati more than once' refers to Pārsva's followers. In the ninth uddeśaka of the first śataka of that work we are confronted with a follower of Pārśva called Kālasavesiyaputta who at first expressed grave doubts regarding Mahāvīra's teachings. The Master, however, soon succeeded in converting him to his religion of fivefold vows. In the fifth uddeśaka of the second sataka of the same text we are told that the city of Tungiyā was often visited by Parsva's followers. In this connection we came across the names of four monks belonging to Pārsva's school. They are Kāliyaputta, Mehila, Kāsava, and Anamdarakkhiya. The Bhagavati records another interesting conversation (9.32) between a follower of Pārśva called Gamgeya (Gāngeya) and Mahāvīra at Vāņiyagāma
