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8
ON MAHAVIRA AND HIS PREDECESSORS*
-Hermann Jacobi
In the Indian Antiquary, vol. VIII, p. 311, a paper on the Six Tirthankas by Jomes d'Alwis was reproduced with notes by the editor. One of these heretical teachers, Nigantha Nataputta, has lately beome of great interest, as he has been identified become of great interest, as he has been identified with Mahâvîra, the supposed founder of the Jaina sect. The proof of this identity is conclusive. For the Buddhas and Jainas agree not only in the name of the sect, viz., Pali-Nigantha, Niggantha, Nigandha; sanskrit Nirgrantha, respectively; and in the name of the founder Pali-Nathaputta, Nataputta, Sanskrit,-Janatiputra, and Prakrit— Nataputta, Nayaputta; Sanskrit-Janataputra, Jnatiputra respectively; but also on the place of Janataputra's death, the town Pâvâ; see my edition of the Kalpasûtra, pp. 4sqq. Yet there remain some anomalies in the forms of these names and some obscure points in the doctrines of the Niganthas as defined by the Bauddhas. To account for, and clear up, these is my purpose in the first part of this paper.
The word Nigantha in Pâli books, and Niyamtha in Jaina, Sûtras (e.g. the Sutra kritânga and Bhagavatî) are neither Pâli nor Jaina, Prâkrit. For its Sanskrit protoype, Nirgrantha, current with the Jainas and Northerb Buddhists, world in both dialects have regularly become Niggamtha, which form indeed, is the common one in Jaina Prâkrit, but not so in Pâli. The form Nigantha was almost certainly adopted by both sects from the Magadhî dialect; for it occurs in the Asoka inscription at Dêlhi, separate edict 1.5
*The Indian Antiquary, vol. ix, 1880.
