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V. K. JAIN: MEAT EATING BY THE EARLY JAINS
203
commentary states that some people assign animalistic meaning to the words mentioned above ....... He states duve kavoya......ityādeḥ śruyamāṇam evārtham kecin manyate. anye tvāhuḥ kapotakaḥ pakṣiviseṣas tadvat yephale varṇa-sādharmanta-kāpote kuşmande.
The mere fact that he chose to mention the bird aspect of kapota apart from herbal meaning is used by some critics to conclude that this version also enjoys the sanctity of the Jain Acārya. Abhayadeva Sūrī in this text as well as in his commentary on the 'Sthānanga-sūtra has clearly chosen the herbal meaning. It is clear that he made a passing reference to the opposite view. He did not feel the need to refute it separately because of its basic untenability in the Jain context. He could probably never imagine that such words could cause doubts on the established Jain principles. By hind sight one can say that he should have forseen the coming generations and refuted it separately and unequivocally.
One interesting feature of the controversy is that all the references/ sources quoted about meat eating concern the Svetambara canonical literature. The fact that these are older texts lends credence to the theory that originally the words had only a herbal/plant meaning. Slowly the emphasis changed to animalistic meaning. The same were therefore not used by later Digambara or Svetambara texts.
One interesting question that comes to my mind is that Mahāvīra who was considered as the apostle of Ahimsa and was believed to have preached and practised it in the minutest details, chose to use openly and prominently, such animal/bird name as pigeon/cock etc, for the medical preparation he wanted. In a similar situation any prudent man, even when forced by sickness to partake of meat-preparation, would use subtler language to get what he wanted without having to proclaim the ingredients of the position. The answer is obivous.
I earnestly hope that this unwarranted interpretation of Jain texts is not repeated. Jain academicians may ensure that the final authentic meaning of these words in Jain Agamic literature is appended to such literature so that as and when any scholar studies this literature, the authentic meaning of the words is available to him and he does not go astray.
Note: This paper is based mostly on a work by Pandit Hiralal Dugad.
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