Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

Author(s): Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company

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LIFE IN ANCIENT INDIA
in its infancy and existed only in a very limited part of India round about the country of Magadha and a part of United Provinces. As a matter of fact, as it has been stated, it was Samprati, who encouraged the propagation of Jainism throughout the length and breadth of the country after he had come to power. Further, the first section of the Brhatkalpa Sūtra which prescribes the eating of the broken or unbroken, raw and ripe palm-fruit (tāla) or the fibres (palamba) for the Jain monks and nuns, leads us to the olden days of terrible famine which visited Magadha and is said to have lasted for a long time, when Bhadrabāhu migrated to Nepala. These precepts indicate the hardest days through which the Jain monks and nuns had to pass and how they had to live on raw palm-fruits and fibres of the trees for their subsistence. Thus in the Jain Canon there are various traditions, historical or semi-historical presenting the political, administrative, social, economic and geographical conditions, throwing an immense light on ancient history and culture of India, which prove the antiquity of the Canons.
Lastly, a reference must be made to a large number of Inscriptions that have come to light The Mathura Inscriptions belonging to the reign of Kaniska and his successors prove that the Jain community had attained a highly developed stage in the first century AD. In these inscriptions are given the names of the Patriarchs belonging to different ganas (schools), kulas (families) and sākhās (branches, already referred to, which mostly coincide with the list of the teachers and the schools founded by those teachers as given in the Kalpa Sūtra of Bhadrabāhu.18 Thus we sec that the tradition preserved in the Jain Canons is pretty old and contains much historicity and hence as Buddhist books have been used as materials for the history of Buddhism, there is no reason why we should distrust the Jain Canons as an authentic source of the Jain Church.
MODIFICATIONS IN THE JAIN CANONS AND THEIR AUTHENTICITY
It may be noted that there are references which go to show that the present Jain Canon is not the original Canon and has undergone considerable modifications We have noticed that different names are ascribed to one and the same Canon' and the number of the Canons varies considerably. The famous commentators Silānka, Malayagiri and Abhayadeva point out different versions (vācanabheda) in the Canons stating that a number of the Sūtras had became corrupt (galitānı) and a number of them were unintelligible (durlaksa).20 Then the contents
18 Archaeological Survey Refords, Vol III, plates x111-XV ; Buhler, The Indian Sect of the Jains, pp 42 60 , Vienna Oriental Journal, Vol III and IV, article by Buhler.
10 For example Rayapaleniya is rendered into Sanskrit by the names Rajapraśniya (Malayagırı), Rigaprasenakiya (Siddhasena Gan) and Rajaprasenayıt (Municandra Sürı), Bechardas, Raya Intro p 8f
30 qua "Ti 257, p 419a , Süya, 71 II, 2, p. 935a, Raya Ti., pp. 239, 259, 236, etc, Abhayadeva has recorded that it was most difficult for him to explain the texts faithfully since they were full of inaccuracies, traditions were lost and there were different versions (Naya Pravash at the end of the text, Tha. T. 10, p 499a).