Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

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closely connected with VIII 51
367a. Here for the first time. we meet the Ajīvikās: VIII 5 in point of fact is the only place in the Viy. except of course Viy. XV, the well-known story of Mahavira's dealings with Gosala Mankhaliputta-where the otherwise anonymous anyatirthikas are actually mentioned by name. (We may only suppose that the anyatirthikas in VII 101 = 323b and XVIII 74 750b are Ajivikas, because at least three of the proper names recorded there are found among the names of Ajivika laymen mentioned in VIII 53 = 369b.) The point they raise, addressing the Theras, is of a particular interest. It comes to the insinuation that Jaina laymen lose every claim to their property, and even their wives, during the said temporary retreat into religious life. Now this almost exactly corresponds to what also the Buddhists reproached Jaina laymen for: taking account of Viy. VIII 51 we consequently cannot say that the passage Anguttara Nikaya III, 70, 3, discussed by H. Jacobi in vol. XLV of the Sacred Books of the East (p. xviii seq.), 'contains some mistake or a gross misstatement'.
J. DELEU
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Mahavira's idea of the iriyavahiya action seems to have met with a great deal of incomprehension on the part of his contemporaries. It sometimes even puzzled his own disciples, for instance Mandiyaputta in III 31 = 182b. One of its implications was the obligation, for the monk, to move carefully while discharging such religious duties as the begging-tour etc. (X 2 = 495b). Apparently the Jaina conception of this so-called iriya-samii was often attacked by the anyatirthikas (VIII 71 = 380a and XVIII 82= 754b), although Mahavira's explanation of its real tenor sounds reasonable enough (XVIII 81 754a): if a monk hurts some small living being while walking in the prescribed way, the action still is in aggreement with his religious duties. In my. opinion texts such as Viy. XVIII 81 and in another context, dealing with the laity, VII 13 288b - somehow put the old controversial issue regarding the unconsciously committed sin (that divided, as is well known, the Jainas and the Buddhists) in quite a different light.1
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1.
In XVII 22 Mahavira defends another very moderate opinion on the respect of life against the extreme views of certain anyatirthikas.
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