Jainism Early Faith of Ashoka

Author(s): Edward Thomas
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 56

THE EARLY FAITI OF AŞOKA.
laissés jusqu'à présent par nos savants orientalistes. Si l'on en croit les traditions conservées par les prêtres de cette secte, l'origine du jaïnisme remonterait à des centaines de siècles avant Jésus-Christ; il paraît, en tout cas, établi qu'il existait bien avant l'apparition de Çakya Mouni, et il est même possible que les doctrines de ce dernier ne soient qu'une transformation des doctrines jaïnas. Les Bouddhistes reconnaissent du reste Mahavira, le dernier Tirthankar jaïna, comme le précepteur de Çakya. Les Jaïnas considèrent, de leur côté, les Bouddhistes comme des hérétiques, et les ont poursuivis de tout temps de leur haine.”-p. 373.
We could scarcely have expected any contributory evidence towards the antiquity of the Jaina creed from Brahmanical sources, and, yet, an undesigned item of testimony to that end is found to be embalmed in the "Padma Purana," where, in adverting to the deeds of Prihaspati and his antagonism to Indra, Jainism is freely admitted to a contemporaneous existence with the great Gods of the Brahmans, and though duly designated as "heretic,” is confessed, in the terms of the text, to have been a potent competitor for royal and other converts, in very early times. I am by no means desirous of claiming either high antiquity or undue authority for the Hindu Puranas, but their minor admissions are at times instructive, and this may chance to prove so.?
1 "The Asurąs are described as enjoying the ascendancy over the Devatas, when Vrihaspati, taking advantage of their leader Sukra's being enamoured of a nymph of heaven, sent by Indra to interrupt his penance, comes among the former as Sukra, and misleads them into irreligion by preaching heretical doctrines; the doctrines and practices he teaches are Jain, and in a preceding passage it is said that the sons of Raji embraced the Jina Dharmma." Padna Purana, Wilson, J.R.A.S. Vol. V. p. 282. See also pp. 287, 310-11.
* Professor Wilson, arguing upon the supposed priority of the Buddhists, attempted to account for the frequent allusions to the Jainas in the Brahmanical writings by concluding that " since the Bauddhas disappeared from India, and the Jainas only have been known, it will be found that the Hindu writers, whenever they speak of Bauddhas, show, by the phraseology and practices ascribed to them, that they really mean Jainas. The older writers do not make the same mistake, and the usages and expressions they give to Rauddha personages are not Jaina, but Bauddha."--Essays, vol. i. p. 329.
It is to be added, however, that Prof. Wilson, when he put this opinion on record in 1832, had to rely upon the limited knowledge of the day, which preSupposed that the Jainas had nothing definite to show prior to the ninth century (n. 333). He was not then aware of the very early indications of their unobtrusivo power in Southern India in Şaka 411 (A.D. 489), if not earlier, as proved by Sir W. Elliot's Inscriptions (J.R.A.S. 1837, Vol. IV. pp. 8, 9, 10, 17, 19): and still less could he have foreseen the new revelations from Mathura, wbich, of course, would have materially modified his conclusions.