Jain Journal 1997 04

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

Page 24

HOERNLE : THE DOCTRINE OF GOSĀLA MANKHALIPUTTA
121
of those who practise the insertion of thorns" some kind of ascetics. The "red class” (lohitābhijāti) are the Nigganthas (or Jain mendicants); he calls them "the men with one garment."10 These are said to be whiter than the two preceding classes. The householders who wear white clothes and are the adherents (sāvaka) of the Unclothed one (achelaka, i.e., Gosāla) constitute, according to him, the "yellow class" (haliddābhijāti). Thus he assigns to these (laymen) who supply him with his own necessaries, a higher place even than to the Niggantha (ascetics)." The Ājivika mendicants for the ascetic followers of Gosāla) constitute his "white class" (sukkābhijāti). They are said to be whiter than the four preceding classes. Nanda, Vachchha. Kisa, Sankichcha and Makkhali-Gosāla constitute his "supremely white class". They are said to be whiter than all the others. 12
By the expression eight stages of man (attha purisa-bhūmiyo) he designates the following eight developmental periods of man: the dull
9. The commentator's meaning is, that by the 'blue' clas Gosāla intends the
bhikkhus or Buddhist mendicants; and by the term 'thorn-inserters' he may mean either these bhikkhus or some other kind of ascetics. The 'four necessaries of a Buddhist mendicant' are his clothing, food, bedding and medicine (see Childers' Dictionary, s.v. pachchayo). I do not understand, however, the practice referred to , nor do I know where the "sacred text" referred to occurs. There appears to be some doubt as to the correct reading of the word kantaka or kandaka; accordingly the
meaning of it must remain uncertain. 10. Ordinarily a Jain ascetic was to content himself with one garment; see
Achäränga Sütra, Jacobi's Translation, II, 5, 1, $i (p. 157), also
Introduction, p. xxvi. 11. Gosāla's preference of his lay patrons to any ascetics, even if they were
only the heretical Nigganthas, appears particularly reprehensible to the Buddhist commentator! In the text Nigganthe hi is clearly a misprint for
Nigganthehi (abl. plur.). 12. This would seem to be intended as a classification of all men. Gosala
himself and, apparently, his chief disciples constitute one class; the mendicant classes of Bhikkhus, Nigganthas, and Ajiviyas constitute three others, the blue, red and white respectively; and all the rest of mankind appear to be lumped up in the two remaining classes: viz., the good, le., those who patronize Gosāla, forming one class, the yellow, while the bad, ie., those who do not accept Gosāla's authority, constitute the other, the black. Incidentally it would appear from this classification, as if at one time the Buddhist. Jain and Ajiviya mendicants formed the largest and most prominent bodies of ascetics,-a fact which is also supported by the reference to them in Asoka's pillar inscription in Delhi (see p. 103). In Rokhill's translation of the Dulva (Life of the Buddha, p. 104) the six classes are referred to as the "six social degrees.