Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

Author(s): Bansidhar Bhatt
Publisher: B J Institute

Page 20

AHMSA, ASCETICISM ....
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e.g. svadhyaya, sleeping on the ground, celebacy, ahimsa, etc. are valued as much as the ritual acts. Any clear reference to the ahimsa as a duty to be observed by any brahmacarin is hardly traced in the dharmasutras. The Paraskara-Grhya-Sutra:
ahiņsann aranyat samidha ahỉtya .../ (2.5.9; cf.Della Casa p.194)
instructs the student to fetch the samidhs - the fire-wood - from the forest without injuring any trees or animals etc.. It suggests that he should collect only those samidhs which are fallen down on the ground, but he should not cut off the living trees for the sake of the fire. Such rules may be compared with those for the renouncers who, for the sake of their food, are permitted to collect fruits, etc. fallen down from the trees on the ground, but not directly from the trees (cf. GDS 3.20). It should, however, be noted that ascetics living in the forests in olden times were not vegetarians (cf. Wezler-1 p.99).
The teacher entrusts his student to the care of the gods and also to the care of other living beings in order to protect him from injuries, e.g. SB says:
... višvebhyas tva devebhyah parida da mi, sarvebhyas tva bhatebhyaḥ parida da mi, aristya iti 1 (SB 11.5.3-4; see also Schmidt-1 pp. 639-640.)
It is also instructed that the brahmacarin should avoid meateating, killing (vadha) of the beings. This rule is reflected in the MS:
varjayen madhu-mamsam ca gandha-malyam ... striyah / śuktani yani sarvani praņinam caiva himsanam // (MS 2.177; cf. also GDS 2.19)
The prohibition of meet-eating for the brahmacarins may be due to the taboo, that the meat of the dead animal is connected with the spirit and hence it is dangerous to the eater himself (cf. Keith. p.307).
(c) Rituals and renunciatory ideas :
Some scholars trace origins of especially the hermit-life and the ascetic life outside of the Indo-Aryan culture. They contend that these two modes of life-stages were gradually accepted
culture. They contend