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Early Jainism
(7) Parişaha and bhikṣādosa no well-established concepts. (8) Monastic Jurisprudence not yet formulated. (9) Karm 1-Doctrine in a primitive form. (10) No Special Ontology. (11) No Special Epistemology. (12) No Special Mythology, (13) No Super-Humanization of the Biography of Mahāvira. Let these features be considered one by one.
The following account of the features in question is written to the form of three independent though closely related essays. The first - called 'A general statement - discusses these features independently, the second - called "Some Relevant passages from Acārānga I'-discusses them in the light of certain passages from Ācārānza I, the third - called 'Some Relevant passages from Sütrakṛtānga l’-discusses them in the light of certain pass. ages from Sūtrakstānga I. Obviously, this mode of presentation is likely to cause the reader some incovenience in following the trend of an argument, but under circumstances that was unavoidable.
General statement
1. Unconditional Emphasis on World-Renunciation
The texts extol the life of a monk -- and a good monk at that, but they have nothing save condemnation for the life of a householder. Consequently, the possibility of there being a good householder is never envisa. ed. Even in his capacity as an almsgiver the householder is never praised
- he is rather pointed out as a possible source of unauthorzied alms; as for the rest, the householder is a possible source of multifarious dangers and multifarious temptations. Of course, it was the mass of householders which constituted the only possible source of recruitment for the order of monks and so this man had to be approched with appeals for recruitment, but these appeals were always based on a forthright condemnation of the life of a householder. Hence the injunction that alms should not be asked for in exchange for a religious discourse ( Sū 7.24 ) – it being likely that at the time of asking for alms one might become mild in one's criticism of the life of a householder. And with a view to avoiding all chances of de. veloping intimacy with a householder the injunction was laid down that alms-receiving should never be a pre-arranged affair while those who were one's relatives in the pre-monasti: career should not at all be approached for alms ( Sū. 7. 24). As a matter of fact, the persons who were one's
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