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TRANSMIGRATION
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sense-organs, viz., those of touch, taste, smell, and sight. The animals that possess five sense-organs, viz., those of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing are of two kinds: those which originate by generatio aequivoca (sammurchima) and those which are born from the womb (garbhaja). Each of them is again of three kinds: aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial. Fishes, tortoises, crocodiles, and the like are the beings of the aquatic type. The terrestrial animals are of two varieties: quadrupeds and reptiles. The quadrupeds are of four types: solidungular animals, as horses, etc., biungular animals, as cows, etc., multiungular animals, as elephants, etc., and animals having toes with nails, as lions, etc. The reptiles are of two kinds: those which walk on their arms and those which move on their breast. Lizards and the like are of the first kind; snakes and the like are of the second kind. Both are again of many kinds. The aerial animals are classified into four varieties: those with membranuous wings, those with feathered wings, those with the wings in the shape of a box, and those which sit on outspread wings. They are again of many kinds. These are the various kinds of animal beings described by the Jainas. The description is undoubtedly stereotyped and to some extent crude too. In spite of these defects it is very much helpful in understanding the nature of the variegation of the animal beings found in the world. This variegation is explained by the Jaina thinkers through the assistance of the doctrine of karma. The soul takes birth in these states because of the rise of the respective physique-making (nāman) karmas. Let us deal with some more informations regarding the animal class.
The subtle one-sensed beings are so fine that they cannot be perceived by our senses. The body of the gross one-sensed animals is apparently gross and therefore perceptible. The two, three, and four-sensed animals are combinedly called vikalendriya-trika, since they are not very much different from one another if viewed from the stand point of the doctrine of karma. Like the beings of one sense-organ they also belong to the third sex and can bind the karmas suitable to the animal class and human beings only. They are never to be found in a subtle form. They are, of course, either fully developed or undeveloped. The five-sensed animals are divided
1 This description is based upon the Uttaradhyayana-sutra, XXXVI, 69-187.
