History of Jaina Monachism

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

Page 57

S. B. DEO
Thus an identity of a few monastic practices or philosophical thoughts need not necessarily imply an identical source.
5. "Śramanism: A degeneration of the ideas in the Upanishads":
Some scholars like DEUSSEN, trace the monastic philosophies of Jainism and Buddhism to the degeneration of the ideas in the Upanishads.
In this connection, the above scholar remarks, "Even Sankhyam and Vedānta are not to be considered as original creations of the philosophical mind, for the common basis of both and with them of Buddhism and Jainism is to be found in the Upanishads; and it is the ideas of the Upanishads which by a kind of degeneration have developed into Buddhism on one side and Sankhya system on the other."37
As against this view it may be noted that these two systems were antiBrāhmanical to the degree of not allowing any philosophical idea or roughly even the fundamentals of Brāhmanical philosophy to be the fore-runner of their philosophical views.
And lastly as Dutt rightly remarks, "religious mendicancy in India cannot, in fact, be traced to the materialisation of any one philosophic idea."38 6. "Copy of the Brāhmanical Rules of Sannyāsa”:
Scholars like JACOBI, BÜHLER and CHARPENTIER, make a more ambitious effort when they opine that Jaina and Buddhist rules of monastic life appear to be the exact copy of the rules for the fourth āśrama, i.e., sannyāsa in Brahmanism.
JACOBI after comparing the rules of these three systems, remarks, “.... We see thus that the germs of dissenting sects like those of the Buddhists and the Jainas were contained in the institute of the fourth āśrama, and that the latter was the model of the heretical sects; therefore, Buddhism and Jainism must be regarded as religions developed out from Brāhmanism not by a sudden reformation but prepared by a religious movement going on for a long time."39
BÜHLER seems to strike the same note when he says that, "the five great vows, most of the special rules for the discipline of the Jaina ascetics are copies, often exact copies, of the Brāhmanical rules for the penitent."40
37. "Outlines of Indian Philosophy", L.A., Vol. XXIX, p. 397. 38. Op. cit., p. 50. 39. SBE., Vol. XXII, Intr. p. xxxii. 40. Indian Sect of the Jainas, p. 15.