________________
Early Jainism
in connection with this that the Jainas gave out that Mahāvīra was only the 24th tīrthankara of the present avasarpint, that 24 tirthankaras are born in each avasar pini, and each utsar piņi, that the time cycle when an avasarpini follows an utsar pini and utsar pini follows an avasar pinī has been in motion in a begin. ningless fashion; at the same time it was given out that by the time 24 tirthankaras have been born there also have been born 12 Cakravartins, 9 Baladevas, 9 Vasudevas, 9 Prati-Văsudavas—this giving the totality of 63 mighty personages adorning each avasar pini and each utsar pini. Of all this mytholoical thought-spinning there is not a trace in our texts. Ācārānga I does speak of the past, present and future arhats but here the word 'arhat naturally means a great monk ; as for the hardships suffered by Mahāvira in the course of his early monistic career which this text sings of in a saga (Chapter 9), they are superbuman only in the sense that they are beyond the endurance of an ordinary mortal, but then in the eyes of our author Mahāvīra was no ordinary mortal. Even the eulogy of Mahāvjra occuring in Sūtrakrtānga I, though full of hyperboles of all sorts, has little mythological about it-except insofar as it attributes omniscence to Mahavira. Similarly, when this text claims for most of its teachings that they have originated from Mahāvira himself one can doubt the veracity of the claim but one cannot charge the author with having mythologized the doings of Mahavira,
Some Relevant Passages From
Acáranga I Considered
1. In connection with this feature as with those detailed in the following it would be profitable to take into special account certain passages from Ācārānga I. So far as the present feature is concerned most important passages occur in chapter 2 containing a trenchant criticism of the worldly people. Thug in a typical passage (7.7) it is here said of them that thoroughly enamoured of things worldly like fields and buildings, gold and ornaments, women they are eager to live long; on the other hand, the people with steadfast conduct (meaning ideal monks) are perseverent in their career because they know what birth and death are and that death never fails to come. Elsewhere (6.9) a man is exhorted to adopt the career of a monk at a moment when his bodily faculties are yet unimpaired. Then by way of drawing a contrast it is said of a degenerate monk (6,16) that he succumbs to the temptation of worldly pleasures and of an ideal monk (6.21) that he does not do so. But nowhere is a contrast drawn between a degenerate and an ideal householder. The conclusion is inescapable that the text does not welcome the prospect of a man endeavouring to lead a householder's life avoiding its excesses. And that is understandable, for to welcome worldly life
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
