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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
AJITASENA-VYAKARANAM in the spiritual stages of the Mahāyānists. The admixture of the two conceptions appears to me to indicate the stage of Buddhism in which Hinayāna was just incorporating the Mahāyānic ideals without, however, its philosophy of Dharmaśūnyatā; or in other words, when the Pāramitās only were being included in the ethical code of the Hinayānists.
On account of its frequent references to the infinite virtues of Buddha, the immeasurable merit acquired through gifts to monks and the inconceivable suffering caused by refraining from making such gifts, it can be called a Mahāyāna-sūtra of the Mahāvaipulya class.
Of other matters of religious interest, we may refer to the mention of the infinite merits acquired by those who read, preach and preserve the present treatise along with the anathema pronounced upon its revilers and to the custom of using head-dress and assembling monks by striking a gong. The last mentioned practice is still found in many Buddhist countries. The head-dress, it may be surmised, was sanctioned specially for the monks living in cold countries like Kashmir.
(iii) of particular importance are the principal figures of the story, king Ajitasena and his spiritual guide Nandimitra, and the name of the capital of king Ajitasena.
Nandimitra and Ajitasena Mr. Watters supplies us with some information about Nandimitra from the Chinese work: Ta A-lo-han Nan-ti-mi-to-lo so-shuo fa-chu-chi (The record of the duration of the Law, spoken by the great Arhat Nandimitra) (JRAS., 1898, p. 331). This has been
I Such anathemas are also given in other Mahāyāna trcatiscs, c.g., in the Saddharmapundarika, pp. 226, 268, 337, 386, 414 ctc., Astasahasrikā Prajnapăramitā, pp. 181 ff; Lalitavistara, pp. 88-89; Kaśyapa-parivarta, pp. 226 ff.
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