Doctrine of Jainas

Author(s): Walther Shubring, Wolfgang Beurlen
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

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DOCTRINT. OP THE Jainas
have been ablc to succeed without giving his words a touch of originality and power, and his otorical gist is certain to have cxcelled the high mcasurc customary in India by far. He is said to havc spoken Ardhamāgadhi', that is 10 say Old AMG., an idiom prior to thc language of our tcxtsa. Traces of the diction characteristic of him can clearly be demonstrated." In thuis connexion we havc to mention the similes. We have a large quantity of them in the Thin., csp in Thina', and we shall refer to them later in § 116. In theon Mahavira renders proof of his cxtensive practical cxpcricncc and of both his profound knowlcdge of the world and of human nature, and had they bccn handed down to us in an oratorical forni, thc Canon of the Jains would certainly not loc infcrior to that of thic Buddhists acsthetically
$21. Even individual traits borrowed from naturc have been incorporated into the total conception by 11.shüvira, thic systematizer, as is shown by many passages of the Viy. Thus his explanation for a hot spring he must have visited ncar Rāyagiha ($ 94), his theory of the wind ( $ 110), and the lifc-community of fire and wind ($ 105). The fact that the movement of a flying object slows down (Viy 176 1), Jiv. 3741)) was probably concluded by Mahāvira from thic cffcct of gravitation Nor should we omit the wind havvadaya (Viy. 4991) arising bctween thc heart and the liver and causing within a galoping horsc thc sound of khu khu Above all, however, the most versaulc thinker we know of in ancient India hadaliking for figures and arithmctic, that characterizes his speechcs most cxtraordinarily, In most cases we are not able to prove which considcrations arc his onn and which are of others, but he calls himself the author of a theory of the 7 possible lines (evam hhalu, Goyama, mae salla sedhin pannattão, Vıy. 954b). Acc. to Vay 866b suchia line is cither
1 Uvav § 56 Each listener heard him in his own language, comp the Acts of the Apostles 2, y ff This applies to all buddha or araham (Samav. 60 b)
2 The discovery was due to LÜDERS (191) In the Jain Canon he showed up traces of Old AMG in 1913, comp Philologica Indica, p 230
3 The AUTHOR, Worte Mv's p 21 ff 4 Comp LEUMANN WZKM 3, 331 f