Gaina sutras

Author(s): Hermann Jacobi
Publisher: Clarendon Perss

Page 34

xxxviii
GAINA SÔ TRAS.
danger of becoming extinct, caused it to be written in books. Before that time teachers made no use of written books when teaching the Siddhânta to novices, but after that time they did use books. The latter part of this statement is evidently true. For in olden times books were not used, it being the custom of the Brâhmans to rely rather on the memory than on the MSS., and in this they were, almost without doubt, followed by the Gainas and Buddhists. But now-a-days Yatis use MSS. when teaching the sacred lore to their novices. There is no reason why we should not credit the tradition that this change in the method of instruction was brought about by Devarddhi Ganin ; for the event was of too great importance not to be remembered. To provide every teacher or at least every Upâsraya with copies of the sacred books, Devarddhi Ganin must have issued a large edition of the Siddhânta. This is probably the meaning of the traditional record that Devarddhi caused the Siddhânta to be written in books, for it is hardly credible that the Gaina monks should never before have attempted to write down what they had to commit to memory; the Brâhmans also have MSS. of their sacred books, though they do not use them in handing down the Veda. These MSS. were intended for private use, to aid the memory of the teacher. I make no doubt that the same practice was observed by the Gaina monks, the more so as they were not, like the Brâhmans, influenced by any theory of their own not to trust to MSS., but were induced merely by the force of the prevalent custom to hand down their sacred lore by word of mouth. I do not maintain that the sacred books of the Gainas were originally written in books, for the same argument which has been brought forward to prove that the Buddhist monks could have had no MSS., as they are never mentioned in their sacred books, in which every movable thing, down to the smallest and least important domestic utensils, is in some way or other referred to?,' the same argument, I say, holds good with regard to the Gainas as long as the
1 Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiii, introduction, p. xxxiii.