Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 51

176
JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XXXVIII, NO. 3 JAN. 2004
prakarana (written in 1675 ) and Jñūnasāra or Astaka-prakaraņa relate the essence of knowledge for acquiring the right perception of an object. It is also said that he revised the Dharma-samgraha written by Mānavijaya in 1681. This is a bulky book which describes the duties of the householder and the ascetic. This book is very rich in quotations, and it is seen that nearly 103 works and 26 authors are quoted in this book.
In the history of Jainism certain new ideas (which were once discarded by Mahāvīra) started to appear again. Around the 10th century A.D. differences in certain interpretaions of Jainism came in. For example, Mahāvīra did not believe in Caturāśrama, that is. Brahmacarya, Grhastha, Vānaprastha, and Sannyāsa (Jaina name is bhikṣu), but in the 9-10th centuries A.D., these started coming up again in Jainism. It is believed that Jinasena (9th cent. A.D.), a pupil of Virasena, and the friend of King Amoghavarsa I (815-877 A.D.), and author of the Adipurāņa, accepted the Caturāśrama system of Hinduism. His follower the famous Digambara Cāmundarāya (10th11th centuries A.D.) in his work Cāritra-sāra has acknowledged this concept of the four āśramas of the Hindus. Except one (i.e. bhikṣu the name of the fourth stage), the names are also the same.
After a few centuries, Āsādhara (1240 A.D.) in his Sāgaradharmāmrta and Medhāvin (1504 A.D.) in his Srāvakācāra had given threefold classification of the Srāvaka. These are pākṣika, naisthika, and sādhaka. A pākṣika-śrāvaka is a layman who practises the anuvratas and the mūlaguņas. He is called a pākṣika layman, because he has an inclination (paksa) towards ahimsā, while, on the contrary, the naişthika-śrāvaka (which is, in fact, equivalent to naisthika-brahmacārī and which is again later on called kşullaka) is one who pursues his path upwards for spiritual attainment and practises the tenfold dharmas of the ascetic. As in his culminating point (nisthā) he leaves the household life, he is called naisthika srāvaka. A Sadhaka is he who concludes (sādhayati) or renounces his human body by carrying out sallekhanā. (S.R. Banerjee, Introducing Jainism, Calcutta, 2002, pp 34, 36). The inclusion of this idea in the history of Jainism