Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 02
Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 23
________________ JANUARY, 1873.] matiya school, by which doubtless he designates the Jainas, since they still call their doctrine Sammati. The leading and distinguishing doctrines of the Jainas are the denial of the divine origin and authority of the Vedas; reverence for the Jinas, who by their austerities acquired a position superior to that of even those Hindu gods whom they reverence; and the most extreme tenderness of animal life. Life "is defined to be without beginning or end, endowed with attributes of its own, agent and enjoyer, conscious, subtle, proportionate to the body it animates" -diminishing with the gnat and expanding with the elephant; through sin it passes into animals or goes to hell; through virtue and vice combined it passes into men; and through the annihilation of both vice and virtue it obtains emancipation. The duties of a Yati or ascetic are ten, patience, gentleness, integrity, disinterestedness, abstraction, mortification, truth, purity, poverty, and continence; and the Śrâvakas" add to their moral and religious code the practical worship of the Tirthankaras, and profound reverence for their more pious brethren." The moral obligations of the Jainas are summed up in their five mahâvratas, which are almost identical with the pancha-sila of the Bauddhas:-care not to injure life, truth, honesty, chastity, and the suppression of worldly desires. They enumerate four merits or dharmas-liberality, gentleness, piety, and penance; and three forms of restraint government of the mind, the tongue, and the person. Their minor instructions are in many cases trivial and ludicrous, such as not to deal in soap, natron, indigo, and iron; not to eat in the open air after it begins to rain, nor in the dark, lest a fly should be swallowed; not to leave a liquid uncovered lest an insect should be drowned; water to be thrice strained before it is drunk; and vayukarma-keeping out of the way of the wind, lest it should blow insects into the mouth. The Yatis and priests DESISABDASAMGRAHA. 17 carry an Ugha or besom, made of cotton thread, to sweep insects out of the way of harm as they enter the temples or where they sit down, and a Mohomati or mouth-cloth to prevent insects entering the mouth when praying or washing the images. The proper objects of worship are the Jinas or Tirthankaras, but they allow the existence of the Hindu gods, and have admitted to a share in their worship such of them as they have connected with the tales of their saints. As among the Bauddhas, Indra or Sakra is of frequent occurrence, the Jainas distinguishing two principal Indras-Sukra, regent of the north heaven, and I's âna, regent of the south, besides many inferior ones; and images of Sarasvati and of Devi or Bhavani are to be found in many of their temples. Nor are those of Hanu mân, Bhairava, or Gape é a excluded from their sacred places. Besides, they have a pantheon of their own, in which they reckon four classes of superhuman beings, Bhuvanapatis, Vyantaras, Jyotishkas, and Vaimânikas,-comprising-1, the brood of the Asuras, Nagas, Garuda, the Dikpâlas, &c., supposed to reside in the hells below the earth; 2, the Rakshasas, Pisáchas, Bhûtas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas, &c., inhabiting mountains, forests, and lower air; 3, five orders of celestial luminaries; and 4, the gods of present and past Kalpas, of the former of which are those born in the heavens-S a udharma, féâna, Sanatkumâra, Mahendra, Brahmâ, Lântaka, Sukra, Sahasrara, Anata, Pranata, Arana, and Achyuta, &c. Each Jina, they say, has also a sort of familiar goddess of his own, called a Śâs an adevi, who executes his behests. These are perhaps analogous to the Saktis, or Matris of the Brahmans; indeed among them we find Ambika, a name of Kaumari, the Sakti of Kartikiya, and Chandâ and Mahakali, names of Bhavani. THOUGH we have been for a long time in possession of a number of Hindu grammars THE DESÍSABDASAMGRAHA OF HEMACHANDRA. BY G. BÜHLER, Ph. D., EDUCATIONAL INSPECTOR, GUJARAT. Stan. Julien, Mémoires de Hiouen Theang, tom. II, p. 164; and my Notes of a Visit to Gujarat, pp. 60, 61. H. H. Wilson, Works, vol. I, p. 807; Asiat. Resear., Vol. XVII., p. 268. Bee Rules for Yatis in the Kalpa Sutra, Stevenson's tranet, pp. 108-114; and especially Nava Tatra, in ib., P. 194 - which treat of the older Prakrits, and though several European scholars have given us excel SH. H. Wilson, Works, vol. I, p. 817; Asiat, Res., vol. XVII., p. 272. For many similar prohibitions see Delamaine On the Brawaks or Jains; Trans. R. Asiat. Soc., vol. L., pp. 420, 421. Amarakosha, I. i. § 1, 88; and conf. Hodgson, Mustrations, p. 218.

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