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JAINA BIBLIOGRAPHY
1315
Pp. 108-109. Mahāvīra founded his order upon a looser group of ascetics, wearing clothing and by no means strict in their chastity, who looked back to the Shadomy Pāršva Natha, the 23rd Tirthakara.
Jainism in its later form, was but a development of the older proto-Jainism of Pārśva. The early Jaina monk, although called acela, was not normally completely nude, but wore a loin.cloth (Acāranga Sutra i, 7, 7, i).
The Ājivika seems to have gone further in his nudity than the early Jaina.
Neither Mahāvīra nor Gosāla was the originator of the cult of nudity, which must have existed before either reformer commenced his ministry. The typical Ajivika of the early period was completely naked and armed with a bamboo
staff.
P. iii. Naccinārkkiņiyar, the fourteenth century commentator on the early Tamil grammar Tolakappiyam, quotes as an example an unidentified verse which mentions the existence of ascetics who perform penances in tāli or funerary urns. Dr. KR. SRINIVASAN, who has noticed this reference, states categorically that these ascetics were Ajivikas, who were identical with Jainas (Ancient India ii, p. 9).
P. 112. Chinese and Japanese Buddhist literature classes the Ashibikas (i.e. Ajivikas) with the Nikendabtras or Nirgrānthas as practising severe penance. (SUGIURA, Hindu Logic as pre erved in China and Japan, p. 16, quoting Hyaku-rom So, i, 22. The passage has been noticed by HOERNLE (ERE, i, p. 269). Who identifies the Ashibikas with the Digambara Jains).
Pp. 118-119. Detailed description of the begging customs of naked mendicants in the Mahāsaccaka Sutta of the Majjihima Nikäyu-in it the Buddha asks the Nigantba Saccaka Aggivesana how the Ajivikas maintain themselves; he replies-- giving full details (CHAlmer's translation, i, p. 238). See also pre-Buddhist Indian Philosophy pp. 167-8 by BARUA. In another passage of the Majjihima (i. p. 77) the same words are put into the mouth of the Buddha himself, when he describes his own ascetic conduct before his enlightenment ; the description of ascetic begging practice as given here, applies to the nude class of accelakas, or naked ascetic which included Ajīvikas & Nirgranthas or Jainas.
P. 123. The Ājivikas, like the Buddhists and Jainas were believers in Ahimsā and usually vegetarians; both the Buddha and Mahavira are said to have eaten meat at least once in the course of their careers as religious leaders. (Mahāvira recovered from his illness, after eating the flesh of a cockeral killed by a catBhagawati Sutra XV. Su. 557, fols. 985-6).
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