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Praśnavyakarana
77
heavily retouched in the period in question though its basic content was fairly old. Accordingly, our Praśnavyākaraṇa too should be assigned to this very period. In any case, it is always advisable to keep in mind the specific literary form of this text even while proceeding to make a special study of its content,
In this background the two sections of Prašnavyükaraña should be examined separately.
Section 1
As bas been said above, this section considers the five vices - violence, falsehood, theft, Incontinence and acquisitiveness. In the case of each there are first enumerated what are regarded as its particular cases and then comes an account of the ill consequences to be reaped by one who indu. Iges in it. In connection with the latter point it is always emphasized that the sinncr is next born as a hellish being, an animal or an unfortunate man; in the case of theft and incontinence it is also shown as to how he suffers discomfiture in his this very life. To take the vices in question one by one the detailed situation is somewhat as follows:
(i) Violence: While working out the cases of violence it has been found necessary to divide thc beings into classes, for the position to be maintained is that one might possibly practise violence in relation to so many classes of living beings. Here is first given a catalogue of the five. sensed beings (further divided into several subclasses) and then that of the four-sensed, the three-sensed and the two-sensed ones; also pointed out are the purposes for which these dfferent classes of living beings are subjected to violence. Finally comes the statement regarding the five sub. classes of one-sensed beings - that is, regarding earth, water, fire, air and plants; here mention is made of the different ways of consuming earth, water, fire, air and plants, it being understood that these are so many ways of committing violence in relation to the living beings of the earth-bodied, water-bodied, fire-bodied, air-bodied and plant-bodied types. This enume. ration of the cases of violence is followed by an enumeration of the types of persons practising violence; the list includes on the one hand the professionals like hunters, fishermen etc. on the other hand the mleccha (=non-Aryan) peoples like Sakas, Yavanas etc. Lastly, by way of enume. rating the ill-consequences of violence to be reaped in the next birth there is first offered a detailed account of the hardships to be suffered in hells, then a relatively brief account of those to be suffered by an animal, in the end a very brief account of those to be suffered by an unfortunate man like one born with a deformed body or a defective sense-organ: (the first two types of hardships are the common fate of all
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