Indian Antiquary Vol 56

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 265

DECEMBER, 1927]
BOOK-NOTICES
235
THE JAINA GAZETTE; the monthly organ of the possible solution of the problem, but merely offers
All-India Jain Association, vol. XXI, No. 6, it as a working hypothesis, which appears to fit June, 1925, Jaina Gazette Office, George Town, in with existing facts and evidence. It is on that Madras.
account the more worthy of study and while This issue of the Jaina monthly organ contains
Any final decision of the matter is at present
impossible, it is clear that an acceptance by scholars an interesting article on the Vratyas, by Professor
of the view that Jainism was already in existence Q. Chakravarti of the Presidency College, Madras,
as a religious and ethical doctrine about the date which was one of the papers read at the Third
of the Brahmanas would go far towards establishing An-India Oriental Conference in December, 1924.
the plausibility of Professor Chakravarti's theory. The author commences by a rapid survey of existing
The article is suggestive and well-written. information and theories about the Vratyas, and suggests that an explanation consonant with all
S. M. EDWARDES. the available facts is forthcoming, provided that TATTVASANGRABA, two volumen, Gaekwad's Oriental we discard the prevalent but inaccurate belief Series, Nos. XXX and XXXI. that Jainism originated with Mahavira about the The Gaikwad's Oriental Series, published, under year 527 B.C. It may be admitted that Parsvanatha, the authority of the government of His Highness the the twenty-third Tirthankara, was a historicel figure, Maharaja of Baroda, is one of the most useful and and this admission implies that Jainism in some
interesting of the series of Sanskrit publications form or another must have been in existence in
which are at present being issued in India. The others the eighth century B.C. Professor Chakravarti
that challenge a ready comparison are the series of discusses the historicity of the earlier Tirthankaras, publications that used to be issued regularly by the the influence of the famous Ikshvaku clan of the Government of His Highness the Maharaja of Kshatriyas on early Aryan culture, and the character Mysore, and the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, for and tenets of the Yatin, who are mentioned in Vedic which the late MahAmahopadhyâya Dr. Ganapati literature. Thence ho deduces the view that early
Sastri was mainly responsible. These publications in the Vedic period an influential school had arised by the most forward Indian States have had to which deprecated the sacrificial cult of the Vedas shoulder the reponsibility which the Asiatic Society and eventually preached the doctrine of ahima, of Bengal had assumed and discharged with so thereby incurring the hatred and contempt of the much distinction in the Bibliotheca Indica Series. Indre-worshipping Vedio Aryans. In other words The Gaikwad's Series is characterised by the the Vratyas signified to non-Jaina writers 'tho comparatively rare character of the works selected observers of the Vrata," in contradistinction to
for publication and the combined learning, ostern the performers of sacrifices, and these Vratyas
and western, with which the works are usually preached the ahimua urata, enjoined by Vpishabha, editer. In this respect they challenge & ready revived by Parsvandth, and adopted by Mahavira. comparison, perhaps to its own advantage, with
This theory differs somewhat from that suggested publications of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research by Professor Samaddar in his recent publication, Institute. The Glories of Magadha. He holds that the Vratyas
The work under review is of a class with the were merely Aryans, who had advanced beyond
Sarpadarfana Sangraha of Madhavacharya. The the territorial limits of the main body of Vedic
work, a comparatively brief one with the commenAryans in the Panjab, and, as pioneers of liberal
tary which is voluminous, constitutes somothing tendencies, had formed an advance settlement in
like a cyclopædia of Indian logie for the eighth Magadha, where their ancient Brahmanic rites
century after Christ. It is the work of an author end ideas underwent modification. Professor
by name såntarakehits, who lived early in the eighth Chakravarti, on his side, holds that the term
century in India and passed on in the forties of that Vratya "was applied to the religious protestants
century to Tibet, where he established a school of among the Aryans who were opposed to the ritualism
Buddhism. It is a work which may, more or less, be of the cult of Indra, and was extended to the
described as belonging to Mahâyânism and treating of lower orders among the followers of the) new faith,
jogie in particular. He has, therefore, to controvert The career of designation is thus the reverse of
all the systems of logic then known, and establish, what was suggested by Rama Krishna Bhagavat,
on the basis of that comparative study, the superior according to whom it first implied a barbarous
excellence of Mahâyâna logic accepted as such. He non-Aryan tribe and later on came to be applied
has to pass under review pretty large number of to somo Aryans. Knowing the aristocratic racial
works and criticise them. Of these there are as many pride of the Aryans, we can never for a moment
as sixty to seventy authors under reference. The believe that they allowed themselves to be designated
work is commented on by his own disciple Kamalaby such a term with its implication of barbarity hila, and the commentary is known as the Panjila. and molechha life."
The commentator adds to the value of thb publiProfessor Chakravarti proffers his theory with cation by making clear the references which are All modesty. Ho does not regard it as the only made only allusively by Santorakalito. Botworn