________________
Early Jainism
were old Vedic metres, and of these the former went out of use in classical Sanskrit Itself; on the other hand, Anustubh was no doubt the most po. pular metre of classical Sanskrit but the most popular metre of Jassical Prakrit was Āryā. And here was a Prakrit text containing verses in Triştubh and Anustubh metres, Schubring is also convincing in his demonstration that editors of Acārānga I have given an orderly arrangement to a mass of miscel. laneous verses and that in doing so they have ofton followed certain strange working principles. Let us see if any far-reaching conclusions can be drawn from all this.
The fact that the verses of Ācāranga I are in Triştubh and Anuştubh metres suggests that the authors of these verses were a cultural descendant of the Vedic authors, (the fact that this text (11.7) designates a wise man ‘vedavit' and 'brahmavit' points out in the same direction). Ilowever, it is equally a fact that the social tradition strictly called "Vedic' upholds the ideal of a man successively belonging to the four asramas brahmacarya, grhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa while the social tradition endorsed by Ācārānga I upholds the ideal of a man embracing the career of a monk as soon as possible. Now the Rgvedic Aryan society is unacquainted with either of these social traditions and the conclusion seems to be that both these traditions got crystallized within the fold of the descendants of the Rgvedic Aryans at some fairly early date. Let us call the first of these traditions Brāhmanical, the second monastic (Śramanic might be preferable in certain contexts). The Brāhmanical tradition was above all interested in developing a theory of how the Brahmin should behave in relation to the rest of the society and the monastic tradition in developing a theory of how the monk should do so. Thus strictly speaking, the Biāhmanical 80cial theory of four aśramas posed a life-ideal before the Brāhmins who were an elite, a corresponding monastic social theory posed a life-ideal before the monks who were similarly an elite. What this latter theory was remains to be seen.
Chapter 14 of Sutrakrtānga I renders it likely that the monastic theory too conceived of an initial stage of studentship and it too called it a stage of brahmacaryayasa; (The very first verse of the chapter seems to clinch the issue). And just as in the Brāhmanical theory the stage of studentship or brahmacar yavāsa was preparatory for the independent life of a householder, so in the monastic theory the same was preparatory for the independent life of a lonely wandering monk. And just as the Brāh. mapical student was given lessons in the principles of priest-craft, so the monastic student was given lessons in the principles of asceticism. For some reason - in all likelihood because the monks mostly originated from the midst of the humbler folk-the monastic tradition adopted Prakrit--
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
