Jain Journal 1974 04

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

Page 45

APRIL, 1974
183
theory. The Svetambara, that is, “they who are clothed in white”, do not claim this doctrine, but hold it as possible that the holy ones, who clothe themselves, may also attain the highest goal. They allow, however, that the founder of the Jaina religion and his first disciples disdained to wear clothes. They are divided, not only by this quarrel, but also by differences about dogmas and by a different literature. The seperation must therefore be of old standing. Tradition, too, upholds this—though the dates given do not coincide. From inscriptions it is certain that the split occured before the first century of our era. Their opposing opinions are manifested in the fact that they do not allow each other the right of intermarriage or of eating at the same table,--the two chief marks of social equality. In spite of the age of the schism, and the enmity that divides the two branches, they are at one as regards the arrangement of their communities, doctrine, discipline, and cult, -at least in the more important points; and, thus, one can always speak of the Jaina religion as a whole.
The characteristic feature of this religion is its claim to universality, which it holds in common with Buddhism, and in opposition to Brahmanism. It also declares its object to be to lead all men to salvation, and to open its arms--not only to the noble Aryan, but also to the lowborn Sudra and even to the alien, deeply despised in India, the Mleccha.* As their doctrine, like Buddha's, is originally a philosophical ethical system intended for ascetics, the disciples, like the Buddhists, are, divided into ecclesiastics and laity. At the head stands an order of ascetics, originally Nirgrantha, “they, who are freed from all bonds”, now usually called Yatis, “Ascetics”, or Sadhus, “Holy”, which, among the Svetam
3 See below p. 204.
In the stereotyped introduction to the sermons of Jina it is always pointed out that they are addressed to the Aryan and non-Aryan. Thus in the Aupapatika Sutra 56 (Leumann) it runs as follows: tesim savvesim ariyamanariyanam agilae dhammam aikkhai, "to all these, Aryans and non-Aryans, he taught the law untiringly". In accordance with this principle, conversion of people of low caste, such as gardeners, dyers, etc., are not uncommon even at the present day. Muhammadans too, regarded as Mleccha, are still received among the Jaina communities. Some cases of the kind were communicated to me in Ahmedabad in the year 1876, as great triumphs of the Jainas. Tales of the conversion of the Bmperor Akbar, through the Patriarch Hiravijaya (Ind. Ant., Vol. XI, p. 256) and of the spread of the Digambara sect in an island Jainabhadri, in the Indian Ocean (Ind. Ant. Vol. VII, p. 28) and in Arabia, shew that the Jainas are familiar with the idea of the conversion of the non-Indians. Hiuen Tsiang's note on the appearance of the Nirgrantha or Digambara in Kiapishi (Beal, Si-yu-ki, Vol. I, p. 55), points apparently to the fact that they had, in the North-West at least, spread their missionary activity beyond the borders of India.
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