Indian Antiquary Vol 59

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

Page 167

Avqust, 1930 ) A FURTHER NOTE ON THE SVETAMBARA AND DIGAMBARA SECTS
153
As to the existence of a Prakrit literature prior to the Vedio Sanskrit, nothing can safely be said in regard to this, since no literature of that period is available. Still we learn from scholars that there assuredly was a different and older literature existing besides the Vedas. 13 But the fact does not alter our position in the least.
2. The second point bears reference to the ancient Jain images. Only certain of the images found at Mathurâ and at Khandagiri-Udayagiri (Orissa) can safely be taken as dating from before the Christian era ; and these are found to be nude.14 Those Jain images of Mathura, on which references are made to the gacchas, garas, etc., as found in the Svetambara Kalpasutra, are also nude, like those found at the Digambara Jain temple of that place.16 This leaves no shadow of doubt as to the ancient shape of the Jain images. They of course were naked, and it was not the case with them that they should neither bear any sign of robes or of nudity as the Svetâmbaras say, 16 As to the images in the sitting posture, which bear no sign of the male organ, no particular stress can be laid upon them, since even to this day many a Digambara Jain image is found so fashioned. The absence of the male organ seems to be due to the difficulty felt by the sculptor in chiselling it out, and reliance cannot be placed on this evidence. On the contrary, if any of them had traces of drapery, the point would surely have been indisputable. In the existent conditions the argument does not support the Svetâmbara views, but is consonant with the Digambara one.
3. As to the third point, it is regrettable that the learned writer here, too, has been led into error and confusion. For the dogma which assigns an inferior status to women in the religious Order is not of late origin, when a strong reaction had already set in against the broad-minded democratic religion of Buddha and Mahavira. The democratic Buddha was himself reluctant to give a place to women in his Bhikků Sangha; and when such a thing was forced upon him, he expressed regret for it and said that the life of the Sangha had been shortened. The Buddhists, like the Digambaras, hold that only a man can become a Buddha.17 And in regard to Mahavira, the Svetâmbara themselves make him say, "Women were known as the causes of all sinful acts."18 In the Vedas we read that boys were wel. comed (RV., iii, 16, 5) and girls cursed (AV., viii, 6, 25). And the extremity is reached when it is said in the Satapatha Brah. (iv, 4, 2, 13) that (women) own neither themselves nor an inheritance. (Hand Tr .) Everywhere their inferiority is manifest in these works.19 Therefore it is not safe to accept the verdict that the inferiority assigned to women is of later origin, and so the point does not affect Digambara antiquity in the least.
4. It is painful to read the fourth point, unsupported us it is by any argument that may be deemed to justify it. The Digambaras had no need of establishing the new theory, since they remained adherents of the old ideas. The real Jain canon has been lost owing to the shortness of memory of the Rishis and the tradition now receives clear support from the ancient inscription of the Jain emperor Khåravela. 20 Hence the extant Anga-granthas of the Svetämbaras cannot be taken as the very original ones. As Prof. A. Berriedale Keith says
"The language of the Jain canon Svet&mbara Jain Angas) is far later than the time of the Nandas, and, if the language could be changed, then the content also was far from secure ; indeed Jain tradition reveals its early losses, and we have no right to hold that the present canon in substance or detail goes back to the fourth century B.C."91 13 Indian Historical Quarterly, vol. III, pp. 307-309. 14 Smith, Jaina and other Antiquities of Mathurd, and Hindt Bengal, Bihar and Orissa Jaina Antiquities, 15 Smith, Jain. Antiq. Mathurd, p. 24. 18 gfta from TTT YTT at arco ir
tt 17 Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, pp. 101-106.
449998 . 18 Aodrdiga Satra, JS., SBE., pt. I, p. 41. 19 Cambridge History of India, vol. I, p. 292. 20 Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, vol. XIII, pp. 236, 21 Sir Ashutosh Memorial Volume, p. 21.