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A Special Relevance of Suttanipata for Jaina Studies
that the three criteria posed above are applicabie in the case of these four Jaina texts almost as much as they are in the case of Suttanipata; (only we have to remember that the standard metre of classical Prakrit is ārya -so that in our Jaina texts a passage composed in anustubh is less likely to be recent). This aspect of the relationship obtaining between Suttanipata on the one hand and the Jaina texts in quastion on the other might profitably be made the subject-matter of a detailed investigation; for the present, however, we are interested in another aspect of their mutual relationship. Thus there are Suttanipata passages which throw interesting light on certain technical concepts of Jainism, concepts which obviously are not current among Buddhists. The supposition ought to be that these passages represent that part of the common ancestral heritage of the Buddhists and Jainas which, for one reason or another, was taken special note of by the latter.
Let the concepts in question and the relevant passages be considered in some details.
(1) The concepts of asrava, samvara and nirjara as understood in later Jainism are never elucidated in our old Jaina texts. Even in later texts the first tendency was to couple asrava with samvara, nijarā with vedana, and it was only in due course that these three concepts asrava, samvara and nirjara were understood in terms of the analogy of a leaking boat stranded in the midst of water. Thus ultimately asrava was likened to the act of water entering such a boat, samvara to the act of closing its leaks, nirjar to the act of emptying it of the water already entered. It is in the same circle of ideas that the following Suttani pāta passage moves,
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savanti savvadhi sota sotānam kim nivāraṇam [
sotanam samvaram bruhi kena sota pidhiyyare || V. 59.
[Here sram na is parallel to asrava, nivāraṇā parallel to nirjarā, while samvara effected through pidhäna is parallel to samvara. ] The world of transmigration compared to the flooded waters was an extremely favourite theme of our old Jaina texts as well as Suttanipāta, and in the background of this comparison it was not difficult for the later Jaina concepts of asrava, samvara and nirjară to make their appearance. Even then, the way these concepts appear in later Jainism has a ring of suddenness about it. The present Suttanipata passage should render understandabie the transition from the old thought-world to the new.
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(2) The later Jaina concept of 22 partsahas is represented in our old Jaina texts under the general title sparsa. Soon it was also customary to speak of four sparśas-viz. śītas parśa, uşnasparśa, damsamaśakasparśa,
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