Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

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

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THE IDEA OF AHIMSA ...
· Lankavatara - satra. The Abhidharma- samuccaya finds a lack of compassion in any act of killing or harming (Ruegg. p.235). Among the Maha ya nists, some of the Buddhists in Tibet and Central Asia are not strict vegetarians, some Buddhists in China have largely given up the meat-eating (Ruegg. p.237). The Buddhist monks and nuns on begging for alms are bound to accept any eatable presented by pious donors in good faith, and their failure in accepting it, is considered to be an interference with the fair reward and good fruits of karmas which the donors were in turn entitled to receive (Ruegg. p.239).
It is thus clear that the meat-eating was not absolutely prohibited in Buddhism (cf. Schmithausen-2. pp.40 fol. with fns.) That means, a him sa was "not the core of the early Buddhist teaching" (Schmithausen-2. p.58, also fn.326). The other details regarding various schools of Buddhism and their own ways of practising a himsa or vegetarianism show a later development and are not relevant to our present theme. They are given by Akira Hira kawa in the "Encyclopaedia of Buddhism" (vol.1, ed.G.P. Mala sekera, Ceylon 1961, entry: "ahimsa", pp.287a to 292a; see also: Ruegg.pp.234-241).
(d) Jainism :
The case of a him sa in Jainism is unique. Jainas - laypersons and the ascetics believe that the idea of a him sa originated in Jainism right from the time of their first tirthankara. Rsabha. Historically, the earlier 22 tirthankaras including Rsabha in Jainism are legendary, except the 23rd one: Parsva in ca. 6th cent. B.C. and the 24th one, Vardhamana, generally known as the Mahavira - the great hero - who lived in ca. the 4th cent. B.C. (cf.Doctrine. SS 14-19). The ahimsa and Jainism - go together, both remain invariably connected with each other to that extent, that they might be treated to be synonyms of eath other, viz. Jainism is ahimsa and conversely also ahimsa is Jainism ! Jaina laypersons and monks and nuns have so vehemently propagated ahimsa-origination in Jainism that they, including almost all scholars from the Jaina faith, are never prepared to believe or accept even some historical facts that might tell us something contradictory to their traditional ahimsa belief. (e) Monks and nuns: meat-fish in alms:
But a historical fact discovered by unbiased scholars has to be