Lord Mahavira and His Times

Author(s): Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 31

Jainism before Lord Mahāvira delirious with Mauneya and inspired. There can hardly be any doubt that the Muni was to the Rigvedic Culture an alien figure. The Taittirīya-Aranyakał speaks of Gramaņas who were called Vatarašanāḥ. They led a celibate life and could disappear at will and teach the Brāhmaṇas the way of righteousness.
The word Šramaņa occurs in the Upanishads,2 although the Mundakopanishad has various references to the shavenheaded ascetics who revile the Vedas. All the passages of Vedic literature,3 taken together, suggest that the ratis were the people who had incurred the hostility of Indra the patron of the Aryas, and whose bodies were, therefore, thrown to the wolves.
The Pañchaviñsa Brāhmaṇa" describes some peculiarities of the Vrātyas. They did not study the Vedas; they did not observe the rules regulating the Brahmanical order of life. They called an expression difficult to pronounce when it was not difficult to pronounce at all and spoke the tongue of the consecrated though they themselves were not consecrated. This proves that they had some Prakritic form of speech. (The Prakrit language is especially the language of the canonical works of the Jainas.) K.P. JAYASWALS states that they had traditions of the Jainas current among them.
In the Rigveda, Arhan has been used for a Sramaņa leader: 'Oh Arhan, you fed compassion for this useless world.' The mention of śiśnadevas (naked gods) in the Rigveda? is also noteworthy.
As a matter of fact, however, there is no definite evidence for the existence of Jainism in pre-Vedic times. The images representing Kāyotsarga excavated at Mohenjo-dāro, cannot be ascribed to.Jainism unless there is some evidence for it. Even from the various terms mentioned in the Rigveda, no definite
1. Taitt. Är, I. pp. 87, 137-8. 2. Bri. Up. 4. 3. 22. 3. Tailt. Sam, VI, 2, 75; Kathaka Samhitā, VIII, Ă; Ait Bị. 35. 2; Kau U),
III. 1; AV, II, 53, Tándya Maha-Brāhmana, VIII, 1-4. 4. Pañch. BT, XVII, 4, 1-9. 5. JBORS, XIV, p. 26. 6. RV, II, 33, 10. 7. Ibid., VII, 21, 5; x, 99, 3,