Mahavira and his Teaching

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

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BUDDHA PRAKASH
called Samucchedi ya, started by Aśvamitra at Mithila, whose doctrine that everything is destroyed soon after coming into existence recalls the Buddhist theory of universal flux. This may not be the solitary instance of exchange of ideas and intercommunication of trends of development of the two orders. They might have acted and reacted on each other on wider planes which sectarian bias has obscured from our views. As a result the forces working in Buddhist circles must have had some repercussions on the Jainas so far as the crystallisation of their sectarian differences is concerned.
After the first council of Pāšaliputra, the scene changes to Mathurā where, under similar circumstances famine, dispersal and oblivion—the second council is said to have taken place under Skandila between 827 and 840 years after Mahāvīra's death. Almost at the same time another council is said to have been held at Valabhī, under Nāgārjuna, to settle the text of the canon. Mathurā was a centre of trade, culture and art where cosmopolitan influences were at work at least from the Maurya period. According to the Ašokāvadāna the Buddhist community of Mathurā was agitated by a monk who propounded the Five
Theses and whom the Vibhāṣā shows to be Mahādeva.2 Paramārtha and his pupil Ki-tsang state that his followers at Mathurā outnumbered the sthaviras (Arhats) and that the emperor Asoka as well as his queen also shared his view, as a result of which the sthaviras had to leave for Kaśmīra from where they did not return as Hiuen-tsang adds.3 All this shows that the Buddhist community at Mathurā was in the throes of a great revolution which brought about the schism of the Mahāsānghikas and the Sthaviravādins and paved the way for the formation of Mahāyāna and Hínayāna. It is impossiblle to think that this convulsion of thought did not have any effect on the flourishing Jaina community of Mathurā.
1. 2. 3.
A. C. Sen, Schools and Sects in Jaina Literature, p 44. J. Przyluski, La Légende de l'empereur Asoka, pp. 366-369. E. Lamotte, Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, pp. 304-309.