History of Jaina Monachism

Author(s): S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute

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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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variety of reasons for renunciation which compares favourably with that found regarding Jaina monks.
Apart from this, the study of these texts and other details in the Vinaya Pitaka and especially the Pātimokkha, expose many similarities in Buddhist and Jaina monachisms concerning the vassāvāsa, uposatha, rules regarding residence and laws of monastic jurisprudence. These similarities and differences are valuable in deciding the magnitude of mutual borrowing between these two sects.
It should be noted, however, that inspite of the Buddhist references to Jaina tenets, the Jaina texts never condescended to take note of their rivals, and we nowhere find a direct reference to the Buddhists in the Jaina Canon. Later commentators, however, explain those terms or statements of criticism, as they thought them to be pertaining to the Buddhists. (6) Brāhmanical Sources:
A number of religious systems growing up in one region cannot be said to be without mutual impacts. This is also the case in the history of Brāhmanism.
The growth of thought as seen from the Vedas to the Upanişads reveals a change in the conception of religion and liberation. The Upanişads reveal an intellectual revolt regarding the ideas based on tradition and it is very difficult to know the exact repercussions between the Jaina and the Buddhist philosophies on the one hand, and this Upanişadic renaissance on the other. .. Apart from this element of revolt, Brāhmanical texts like the Purānas which are later than the Upanişads, refer to personages, which may possibly turn out to be Jaina. The Vishnu 104 and the Bhāgwata Purānas105 refer to Rşabha who used to go about naked, who compelled Indra to send down rain and who died in a conflagration. This description compares favourably with the Jaina account of their first Tirthankara of the same name.106
Besides the resemblance in the life-story of Rşabha, there is yet another similarity in the Brahmanical and Jaina accounts of Sumati. According to the Jainas, he is the fifth Tīrthankara. The Bhagwat Purāņa makes him the son of Bharata and adds that this Sumati will be "irreligiously worshipped by some infidels as a divinity."'107
104. See WILSON's edition, p. 163. 105. 5, 3-6.
106. Cf. Kalpasūtra, SBE, Vol. XXII, pp. 281-85; Mahāpurāņa of Puşpadanta, ed. Dr. P L. VAIDYA, Vol. 1, Sandhis 1-3.
107. WILSON, op. cit., p. 164 n.