Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 151

130 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
these particles of earth, the origin of various things; these beings consume earth-bodies, water-bodies, fire-bodies, wind-bodies, bodies of plants; they deprive of life the bodies of manifold movable and immovable beings; the destroyed bodies which have been consumed before, or absorbed by the rind (are), digested and assimilated (by them). And the bodies of these (trees) which bring forth their different parts, are of manifold colours, smells, tastes, touches, forms and arrangement of corporeal particles."]
The Süyagada mentions four different kinds of seeds generated respectively at the top, bottom, knots and stem-as the source of plant life. The trees sprung from shoots, sprouts, aerial roots etc., are considered as a class different from those whose offshoots they are. Just as the trees themselves are originated in earth and sustained by the substances of the earth so also these parasites are born in the trees and nourised by the sap of the trees. In the same way the watery plants like Avaga (a grassy plant growing in marshy land) Panaga, Sevāla (the aquatic plant Vallisneria), Kalambuya (Kadamba), Kaseruya (Scirpus Kysoor), Kacchabhāņiya, Uppala, Pauma, Kumuya, Nalina (four varieties of lotus), Subhagasoniya, Pondariya, Sayavatta, Kalhāra, Kokaņada, Tamarasa (these are all varieties of lotus) etc. are born in water and sustained by the substances of water. The same process also holds good in the cases of creepers, herbs, gran and so on. They are all born from seeds in earth or water and developed by consuming earthly or watery substances.
Most of the animals come into existence by the process of generation (gabbha-vakkanti, garbha-vyutkrānti), but in a few cases we come across the process of manifestation (uvavāya) mentioned above and that of coagulation (sammucchanā). The process of manifestation holds good in the cases of the inanimate, near-animate, animateimmovable, and essentially elementary types of beings. Later on, however, this conception was revised to mean creation brought about with lightning-like suddenness, without any material basis, evidently in other to explain the origin of the gods and the hell-beings. Coagulation or origination by generatio acquivoca pertains to certain beings possessed of one to five senses. They grow by assimilating the materials in their surroundings. Coagulation takes place spontaneously
ISBE, XLV, pp. 388-89, *Sūya, II. 3. 3.20. 'Pannavană, 44ff,