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On Mahavira and His Predecessors
(Ind. Ant. Vol. VI p.150 note). This hypothesis becomes a certainity for the word Nâtaputta. As translated in Sanskrit it is Jñâtiputra, the regular Pâli derivative, would be Ñâtaputta with a palatal ñ. The dental in its stead is a Mâgadhism. For, in the Mâgadhî inscriptions of Asoka, we read nâti, amna, etc. = Sanskrit jñâti, anya, etc. which words become ñâti, añña, etc. in Pâli and in the dialetcts of the Asoka inscription at Girnâr and Kapurdigiri. The palatal ñ appears in Pâli in the first part of the name when used as the name of the Kshatriya clan to which Mahâvîra belonged. For I identify the ñatika living near Kotigâma mentioned in the Mahâragga sutla (Oldenberg's edition p. 232), with the Jñataka Kshattriyas in Kundagrâma of the Jaina books. As regards the vowel of the second syllable, the different sources are at variance with each other. The Northern Buddhists spell the word with an i, -Jñâtiputrain Sanskrit, and Jo-thi-tseu in Chinese (tseu means 'sen'), the Southern ones with an a-Nâtaputta, as do the Jainas, though Jñâtiputra is not unfrequent in MSS. The form Nâyaputta proves nothing, for the syllables and are inter changeable in Jaina Prâkrit. M. Eug. Burnouf, commenting on the name in question, says: "J" ignore pourquoi le Pâli supprime l' i de Djâñcti seriat ce que le primitif vèritable serait Djñâti et que le Djñâti en serait un prakritism, correspondant a celui du Sud nâta, comme djeta corresponds a djetri?" That M. Burnouf was perfectly right in his conjecture, can now be proved beyond a doubt. For the occasional spelling of the word with a lingual t Nâtaputta shows an unmistakable trace of the original ri,. The Sanskrit for Nigantha Nâtaputta was therefore in all probability Nirgrantha Jñâtriputra, that of the Kshattriya clan Jñâtrika (Pâli-Nâtika, Prâkrit-Nâyaga). It is perhaps not unworthly of remark that Nigantha. Nâtaputta must have made part of the most ancient tradition of the Buddhas, and cannot have been added to it in later times as both words conform not to the phonetic laws of the Pâli language, but to those of the early Mâgadhî.
We sahll now treat of the opinions which the Buddhists ascribe to Nâtaputta and to the Niganthas in general, in order to show that they are in accordance with Jainism. One of its most characterstic features is the unduly extended idea of the animate world; not only are plants and trees endowed with life, and accordingly are not to be want only destroyed, but also particles
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