Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

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Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
134 learn from (Viy. 274b) in contrast to Taņd. 3b, the frequency of breathing is the same with the embryo as it is with the fully developed man; and he will retain this frequency for the whole time of his life i.e. 3773 in one muhutta. So then, respiration (ussāsa-nissāsa or pāņu) comes to be a time-measure. While the breathing of beings having two to five senses was accepted as an established fact (jānāmo pāsāmo), it seemed problematic with regard to elemental beings and plants, but it is explicitly stated to apply to them as well (Viy. 109a) and moreover, (Viy. 109b) continues in saying that 'breathing' embraces all possible matter (davvāim)."'1 We have already occasion to refer to beings with different kinds of senses and their classification. The various manifestations of elements, all plants and such beings furnished with more senses than one are also listed in the Paņņavanā in which the materiality of the sense-organs is referred to by the term davvindiya. We have also another conception called bhāvindiya denoting senses in their conditional state, meant for explaning the faculties of speech, etc.
The Jain botanical, zoological and physiological conceptions are not very different from those of other branches of Indian thinking. For the sake of comparison some aspects of these sciences as are found in the non-Jain sources may be referred to in this connection. Caraka and Suśruta have classified all the trees and plants into four groups : Vanaspati, which produces fruits without producing flower, Vānaspatya, which produces flowers as well as fruits, Oşadhi, which dies after producing the fruits, and Virudha, the stems of which scatter all around. To the fourth category also belong Latā (creepers) and Gulma (shrubs) or cartaceous plants. Grass (Trņa) and shrubs (Avatāna) are included in a separate category by Prasastapāda. In Gunaratna's commentary on the Șaddarśanasamuccaya the following aspects of plant life are recorded: infancy, gradual development, sleep and waking, response to external stimulus, catching up wounds and their healing, assimilation of food in accordance with the nature of the soil, diseases and getting out of them. Udayana also saw among the plants the facts of life and death, sleep and waking, disease and effects of drugs. According to the Jains, the generated are born either in the egg (andaya), or with the chorion (jarāyuya) or as living young (poyaya). Caraka likewise mentions four kinds of generated beings-jaräyuja, born from uterus, e.g. men and quadrupeds; andaja,
libid, p. 145.