Jaina Political Thought

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 73

writings. Jinasena now adds to the Varnadharma a veritable corpus of rituals, duties and ceremonies which constitute an elaborate alternative to the Brahmanical asrama-dharma and samskaras. They are said to belong to the collection of duties for the laity They are divided into three sets of rites. There are fifty-three rites following from brith, forty-eight rites following from initiation and seven rites following from spiritual eligibility. The first set of fifty-three rites begin with conception and go on till salvation, rather than death, as is the case in the Brahmanical tradition. Some of these tifty three rites may be mentioned here. The first is conception where three holy fires are to be used for pure oblations in front of the image of Jina, and only Jaina mantras are to be used. The seventh rite is that of Naming. The name should be selected from amongst the names of the Jina. The fourteenth is upnayana tor which a simplified Jaina ritual is prescribed. The seventeenth is marriage. As already mentioned, rules of anuloma marriage have been prescribed. The eighteenth rite called Varnalabha, is interesting. By it the son after marriage is established in an independent household. The rite also implicity signifies that one's Varna is acquired through the profession one adopts. The Twenty-second rite is called the renunication of the house.. hold. A number of rites then relate to the different stages of spiritual attainment. The thirty-third rite is called taking birth as Indra after a religious death. In due course one is born as a Cakravartin and a number of rites relate to the life of the Cakravartin one of these is the world conquest of the chakravarti which is followed by the exercise of dominion, which is called Samrajya and is the forty-seventh Kriya. This includes doing favour to the people and keeping them well pleased. The emperor advises the subordinate rulers to protect the people justly and threatens to take away their livelihood in case they act unjustly. Justice is defined in a two-fold manner. It includes the repression of the wicked, and the protection of the good. This is described as the perennial ksatra dharma. Following this rule one acquires dharma-vijaya. It is obvious that the duty of the emperor is primarily to supervise, instruct and admonish the subordinate rulers. Further rites visualize the adoption of a pure spiritual life by the emperor.
Of these fifty-three rites the forty from upanayana onwards along with eight more are called the Diksanvaya Kriyas. When a person wishes to adopt the Jaina faith after having realized the falsity of the Vedic religion, he is accepted into the true faith and this is called avatara. This is followed by the due acceptance of various vows. This is called Vrttalabha. A number of other similar religious rites lead on to upanayaya.
The Kartranvaya kriyas belong to those spiritual persons who are fit
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