Jainaism in Ancient Bengal

Author(s): R C Majumdar
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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JAINISM IN ANCIENT BENGAL : 131
journeys. As both these points have a great bearing on the history of Jainism in ancient Bengal it is necessary to discuss them critically.
The Bhagavati Sūtras describes in detail how Gosāla, after several unsuccessful attempts, was at last accepted as a disciples by Mahāvira at a place called Paniyabhūmi. The story, put in the mouth of Mahāvīra, then proceeds : Aham..Gosālenam..saddhiṁ Paniyabhūmie chavvāsāim viharittha. The normal meaning of the passage is that the two lived together at Paniyabhūmi during the next six years. But this is in conflict with the statement in the Kalpa Sutra that Mahāvīra spent only one rainy season in Paniyabhūmi. In order to reconcile this difference it has been suggested that the word Paniyabhūmie should be taken as in the ablative and not, in the natural way, as locative. But this is admitted to be an unusual construction. As according to the persistent Jaina tradition Mahāvīra led a wandering life except during the rainy season, the expression in the Bhagavati Sūtra evidently means that Mahāvīra and Gosāla fixed their headquarters at Paņiyabhūmi, wandering about from place to place during the year, as described in detail, year by year, by Jinadāsa.
The question of the location of Paņiyabhūmi is also beset with difficulties. The Bhagavati Sūtra seems to indicate that it was situated quite close to Nalandă. But this creates a difficulty. The Kalpa Sūtra is in full agreement with Jinadāsa's list of places where Mahāvīra spent the rainy seasons, with the single exception of Vajjabhūmi in Lädha. The commentator, Vinayavijaya, reconciles this discrepancy by stating that Paniyabhūmi, where, according to the Kalpa Sūtra, Mahāvīra spent one rainy season, is in Vajjabhūmi. Curiously enough, A. L. Basham accepts this explanation and comments that “thus it is evident that Jinadāsa did not invent the whole of his story"?; yet elsewhere he severely criticized Dr. B. M. Barua for having located Paniyabhūmi in Vajrabhumi on the authority of Vinayavijaya's commentary, "ignoring the clear statement of the Bhagavati that Paņiyabhūmi was near Kollaga which was a settlement near Nälandã."8
3 XV, Sūtra 541. 4 For a summary, cf. A. L. Basham, The Ajivikas, pp. 39-41.
Barua (op. cit., pp. 17 ff.) denies that Gosāla was ever a disciple of Mahavira and therefore disbelieves the whole account of the
Bhagavati Sūtra. 6 Sūtra 122 (Jacobi's edition, p. 64). 7 Basham, op. cit., p. 46. 8 Ibid., p. 41.