Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

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

Page 52

REFORM RELIGIONS....
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to do (Jacobi-2. p.21; Charpentier. p.85).
Dasaveyaliya 12. vs. 7 cited above is late and has no special connection with or reference to the statements regarding the meat-eating and/or fish-eating as mentioned above from the Åyara, Dasaveyaliya and the Viyahapannatti.
It has to be remarked that the medical texts (e.g. Nighaṇṭu and Suśruta, etc.) in their present form consist of various interpolated structures, and they may be attributed to the period ranging between ca. the 1st (ur-texts) and the 10th cent. A.D. (the present form). Moreover, it seems, origin and the codification of metaphoric names of some plants (majjara), fruits (kavoya), diseases (majjara), medicines (kukkuda-mamsa), etc. in medical texts of India existed surely very late, the passage cited above from the Jaina canon are earlier than the metaphoric names.
(g) The separative tendencies:
Cr
From the above instance, we can say with certainty that even some traditional scholiasts offer correct explanations of the canonical passages, among them are the two Cami-karas Jinadasa and Agastyasimha (both: ca. 6th or 7th cent.) Haribhadra (8th cent.) and Abhayadeva (ca. 11th cent.). It is quite plausible that about the time when the Jaina canonical texts were compiled and arranged in ca. 6th or 7th cent. AD in Valabhi (Gujarat) under the headship of the Jaina monk Devardhigani, propagation and monopolization of the ahimsa ideal as the only and unique characteristic of Jainism would have acquired considerable momen-tum among the Jaina orthodoxy of Gujarat, in order to distinguish Jainism from the other faiths of India. This situation spread over the entire Jaina community, e.g. veda and six upangas are a false sastra, so declares the Nandi viz. ... miccha-suyam... ahava ... cattari veda sång-ov - anga.
(Nandi-JĀgS.72, p.29; cf. Anuoga-JĀgS.20-27, pp.63-64)
vratas -
Of course, the ahmisa is not the only ideal, but is one of the five austerities, viz. abstinence: from killing the beings, from accepting what is not given, from sexual inter- course, and from accumulation of property. These five vratas come originally from the early Brahmanical dharmasutras (see above 2.c). But the orthodoxy gave much value and utmost importance only to ahmisa and rendered their vow of speaking the For Private & Personal Use Only