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Lord Mahâvîra
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The 'Sayings of The Seers'
Jainism, then, was in origin merely one component of a north Indian ascetic culture which flourished in the Ganges basin around the sixth century BCE. Many individual participants within this culture had attained a marked degree of fame at this time, acknowledged by Jains and Buddhists alike, because of their supposed attainment of some form of knowledge or enlightenment, 10 and one early text provides particularly valuable evidence of how an attempt was made by the Jains to establish some sort of accommodation with non-Jain ascetics, both contemporary and ancient.
The 'Saying of the Seers' (IBh) is seldom referred to in studies on Jainism not only because it is often difficult to understand but because its status and purpose are unclear. It contains a series of statements attributed to a variety of rishis or seers (the term in origin referred to a composer of a Vedic hymn), some familiar from other sources, others almost totally obscure, but all clearly regarded as in some way significant and authoritative in their own right. Unquestionably the 'Sayings' is one of the most ancient Jain texts available although, with a very provisional dating to the fourth BCE, it probably cannot be assigned to the very oldest stratum of the literature. Never completely forgotten, it seems nonetheless to have fallen at a fairly early date into a partial obscurity, with very few manuscripts of it being copied and no classical commentary on it being composed.
The subject matter of the 'Sayings' must have been the reason for this, for it juxtaposes Mahâvîra along with Parshva, regarded as the formers predecessor as fordmaker, on equal terms with figures from traditions which were to be regarded as Jainism's rivals, such as the Buddha's close disciples Shariputra and Mahakashyapa (the Buddha himself does not appear), various individuals from a brahmanical background such as Yajnavalkya, one of the preeminent teachers of the Upanishads, and even Makkhali Gosala whom later Jain writers were to see as the archenemy of Mahâvîra.
Mahâvîra's teachings are presented, under his given name of Vardhamana, at no great length and in no privileged manner. Suppression of the senses is given as the central tenet of his doctrine, sacrificial imagery being used to convey this: 'he who
