Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 21

THE JAINA TRADITION
In view of the above argument it is no longer possible to trace the origins of the institution of samnyåsa to Vedic Brahmanism. It has been already pointed out by distinguished scholars that the Brahmanical theory of the fourth aśrama is post-Buddhist in origin.13 Dr Sukumar Dutt has also stated that "the theory of the Brahmanical ascetic being the original or proto-type of the Buddhist or Jaina religious mendicant seems scarcely tenable."14 In the old Upanişads the idea of the ascetic stage or samnyāsa was not recognised.
Dr L.M. Joshi states that the word śramana occurs for the first time in Brhadāran yaku Upanişad and it never became a word of respect in Brahmanical literature. According to him, ""no Upanisad text can be proved to be pre-Buddhist in date.” He has pointed out that even the two of the oldest Upanisads, namely, the Brhadāran yaka and the Chandogya, are not older than Buddha and Mahāvīra. He places these two Upanisads in the fifth century B.C. and the remaining of the oldest Upanisads between 400 and 200 B.C. He draws attention to the fact that king Ajātaśatru of Magadha is mentioned in BỊhadaranyaka Upanişad (II. 1.1) and the Kaușitaki Upanişad (IV. 1). This king was a contemporary of Buddha and Mahāvīra.15 A.B. Keith had also said that :
"It is wholly impossible to make out any case for dating the oldest even of the extant Upanishads beyond the sixth century B.C., and the acceptance of an earlier date must rest merely on individual fancy.''16
The Brahmanical Dharma-sūtras which mention the fourth āśrama are post-Buddhist in date. The contention of Bühler, Jacobi and Charpentier, that the Jaina and the Buddhist ascetics borrowed the rules of Brahmanical samnyāsins, is therefore not correct. The institution of samnyasa was accepted by the brāhmana law-givers after the Jaina and the Buddhist institution of the monastics.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE JAINA TRADITION
In the study of the history of Jaina ideas, we must take due note
13. G.C. Pande, op. cit., pp. 251 ff; L. M. Joshi, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Hinduism,
p. 48. 14. Sukumar Dutt, Early Buddhist Monachism, p. 39. 15. L.M. Joshi, Aspects of Buddhism in Indian History, pp. 15-16. See also L.M.
Joshi, Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India, p. XVIII. 16. A.B. Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads, vol. II,
pp. 498-502.