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Lord Mahâvîra
before Gautama and the latter clarified it. Kesi was delighted and he accepted the order of Lord Mahâvîra.
We can easily came to the following conclusions on the basis of this discussion
(1) Before Mahâvîra, there was a custom of acceptance of four great vows at least from the time Parsvanatha. Mahâvîra slightly changed it and developed it into five great vows. Only this developed form is, without any controversy whatsoever, accepted by all Jain sections, while the ancient custom of four great vows is preserved only in the Scriptures.
(2) Buddha himself and all the Bhiksus who were his contemporaries and followers, looked upon the Nirgrantha tradition as comprising of only four great vows; they did not know of the internal reform that brought these to five. They repeatedly gave expression to what Buddha stated once and what became popular in the common public, in their works.
Buddha has laid down five Silas or vows. These are similar to the Yamas of the Nirgrantha tradition from the viewpoint of number, but with a difference, It is that the fifth vow is Aparigraha non-acceptance in the Nirgrantha tradition, but it is abandonment of wine etc. in the Buddhist tradition.
It is true that four Yamas are referred to at several places in the Buddhist works, but its meaning in the original Pitakas and its Attha stories is wrong and lacks in clarity. What is it due to? In the first instance we would be surprised that the Buddha writers were ignorant of and unclear about the Nirgrantha tradition in their neighbourhood that was contemporary and renowned and had accepted four Yamas. But when we consider the position of the cult then, our surprise disappears. No cult has even given full justice to the other. It is possible that in the beginning Buddha and his contemporary pupils know the precise meaning of the word 'Caturyama'. It was known to all and needed no elaboration. But with the process of the collection of the Pitakas in progress, it was found necessary to clarify the meaning of 'Caturyama'. Some Bauddha Bhiksus, through the force of his imagination supplemented the meaning, and with time this continued and nobody cared to assess whether or not this meaning was acceptable to the Nirgrantha tradition. At several places, the same
