Jain Journal 1980 04

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

Page 79

184
JAIN JOURNAL
Translation ; 'In the fourth month a division of limbs and subordinate limbs becomes more distinct. On account of the development of the embryo the organ of conscience appears. Why? Because its place is in the heart. The garbha therefore has a desire for the objects of senses in the fourth month, And a woman with two hearts in her is called dauhrdini'. (quoted by H. Lueders in Zwei indische Etymologien, Philologica Indica, Goettingen, 1940, pp. 45,46) According to L. Mind. dohada was derived from Sk.* dvaihrda. Lueders quotes two more parallel references, Bhavaprakasa I, 71 and Mallinatha to Raghuv, III, 1 which give the same explanation as Susruta. A question may well be asked why a woman is thought to be able to cause a tree to put forth blossoms by her touch and not a man. The woman could not be understood here acting procreative like a man in this connection. The idea underlying seems to be, as Lueders' etymology of dohada and Mallinatha's definition, quoted p. 165, make it most likely that the powerful magic life substance with which a woman is loaded while bearing a child may flow into a tree through her touch, while she is filled with a pregnancy desire, thus animating the tree. In E. Waldschmidt's Das Mahaparinirvanasutra III, p. 469,70, Tibetischchinesischer Sondertext IV (Tibetan-Chinese special text IV) the flourishing and fading away of Udumbara-blossoms is described as running parallel to the birth of the Bodhisattva (new buds appear), to his boyhood (the buds begin to unfold), to his exit into a forest (the flowers grow bigger), his entering into ascetism (flowers begin to fade away), to his giving up ascetism, regaining his strength and reaching perfect enlightenment (the flowers of the Udumbara-tree flourish again), to his turning the wheel of Dharma in Banaras (full flourishing of the flowers), to his death (fading away of flowers). Most significantly the flourishing of the Udumbara-tree is not reported here as caused by the touch of the Bodhisattva or Buddha respectively, who is a male, or by being near the tree! I would like to call this process the 'wireless' influx of the Bodhisattva's and Buddha's life substance into the tree due to
his supernatural powers resulting in parallel events in a tree. 41 Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1954, Vol.III, Parts 1-4, pp. 54-71. 42 Quoted from Vasudevahindi-prathamakhandam, ed. by Bhavnagara-stha.
Srijaina Atmanandasabha, 1930, p. 85. 43 Vincent A. Smith in A History of Fine Arts in India and Ceylon, Oxford, 1911,
p. 382, refers to two ivory figures, conventionally known as 'Bacchus', discovered in the pulpit of the cathedral in Aschen (Germany) and observes regarding these figures : 'Each represents a nude young man facing, standing with the right leg straight and the left leg crossed over it. The body is supported by the left arm which is twined round the stem of a vine overtopping and surrounding the youth with its foliage. His right hand is raised to the crown of his head, (op. cit., pl. LXXXVI, fig. 4) The pose is precisely the same as that of the woman and tree motif in Indian Art and the resemblance between the Mathura and Aachen figures is so close that in my judgement, it can not be accidental, both must have a common origin, which should be thought in Syria or Asia Minor from which Egyptain Hallenistic Art drew its inspiration. The motif is variously treated in Egypt, and, at least in one case, a woman takes the place of the youth. There is no difficulty in believing in the transference of Alexandrinean ideas to India either before or after the Christian era. From Asoka's time for several centuries intercourse between parts of Egypt and India was continuous.'
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