Jain Journal 1974 04

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

Page 34

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JAIN JOURNAL
Parsva' in contradistinction to the five vows of Mahavira. Here the Buddhists have probably made a mistake in ascribing to Mahavira a doctrine which properly belonged to his predecessor Parsva. Professor Jacobi, therefore, looks upon this as a proof that the Jaina tradition is correct in asserting that 'followers of Parsva actually existed at the time of Mahavira'.
Parsva's followers are mentioned in the Jaina Sutra in quite a matterof-fact way (especially Kesi, who seems to have been a leader of the sect in the time of Mahavira), so that there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of these records. There is an interesting legend of how the old and new body were united.37 And indications of some estrangement, even then, though not open hostility, may point to the cause of the division of the body into Svetambara and Digambara. It was evidently a matter of time, and in the end developed into a great schism.
Also the Nigantha are frequently mentioned in the Pițaka, as opponents or converts of Buddha and his disciples. They must have been an important sect by the time Buddhism took its rise. Hence they must have existed before Nataputta.
There is yet another proof. Makkhali Gosala divided mankind into six classes, and the third were the Nigantha. Hence, since he was a contemporary of Buddha and Mahavira, it is clear that the Nigantha had already attained to great importance.
Early Religious Practices
Jacobi has deciphered some exhortations to a Savaka, or Nigantha layman, as follows : 38
'Well, sir, you must desist from doing injury to beings in the East beyond a yojana from here, or to those in the West, North, South, always beyond a yojana from here. '39
This is evidently a trace of the Digvirati vow of the Jaina, which lays down limits beyond which one shall not travel or do business in different directions.
Again, later on it says:
37 Cf. Uttaradhyayana, Lect. xxiii. 38 Anguttara Nikaya, iii. 70, 3. 39 Pali Text Society, Sumangala Vilasini, p. 119.