Jain Journal 1974 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 23

APRIL, 1974
Brahman broom has its counterpart in the grasses with which the Jaina sweep the road, where they walk and sit, in order to remove insects. While the stick and the rope belonging to the alms-bowl, the alms-bowl, and the water-vessel are the invariable accompaniments of each. In fact, the only speciality of the Jaina is their filter for the mouth, which they call 'mukhavastrika'. On the whole, therefore, the Jaina were fitted out very much like their Brahman models, the Sannyasin or Bhikshu. They have more vows in common with the Brahmans than the Buddhists, and several precepts in common with Brahman ascetics.
There is still another question to decide. Did the Jaina monk copy from the Brahman ascetic, or vice versa ? That the former is the case has overwhelming evidence. For, putting aside for a moment the claims of the Sannyasin to be part of the Asrama, which are probably as old as Brahmanism itself, we find traces of Brahman ascetics all over India, at a time when Buddhism was only 200 years old, and still exercising merely a local influence. Therefore it is difficult to conceive how all the Sannyasin could have been taken from the Buddhists.
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But still more conclusive is the argument from the date of Gautama, the lawgiver. For Professor Buehler13 puts down Baudhayana as of a much older date than the Apastamba, which we know was written in the fourth or fifth century B.C. But Gautama was older than either of these, and yet in his day he taught the complete system of Brahman asceticism.
What then gave rise to the monastic orders of Jaina and Buddhists ? It must be remembered that though these orders were copied, as we have seen, from the Brahmans, they were distinctly intended for the Kshatriya caste, of whom both Mahavira and Buddha were members. This is proved by a curious legend about the transfer of the embryo of Mahavira from the womb of a Brahmani to that of a Kshatriyani. For it was alleged that no other caste was worthy to bring forth a Tirthakara. Now it was only natural that Brahman ascetics should not regard these fellow ascetics as quite their equals, however orthodox they might be ; and that further separation between them should ensue, when it came to be held that the Brahman was entitled to enter the fourth Asrama (or stage), the Kshatriya only three, the citizen two, and the Surda one. A remark of Vasishtha throws light upon this tendency to dissent, when he deplores the fact that non-Brahman ascetics had ceased from reciting the Veda, and hence were neglecting revelation. We can be safe in
13 Sacred Laws of the Aryas, pt. i. Introduction, p. xliii.