Mahaviras Word

Author(s): Walther Shubring
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 29

Mahāvira's Words by Walther Schubring
('ie). Dasā 1-7, Utt. 16, Dasav. 9, 4 and Cūlāo II 7, 2 have for this: "Here has been made known ... by the eldest ones, the lords" ---iha khalu therehim bhagavanthehim ... pannattā. The Kāsava texts will still be referred to (p. 13) when considering the Sūyagada.
If the emphasis which the texts place on the person of Mahāvīra led to the incorporation of the poetry therein into this collection of apologetic texts (p. 13 below), then in the three prose sections mentioned here one finds the value of the matter strongly emphasized. 32 The thera texts refer to the founder himself as little as the old collection of the rules (Kappa, Vavahāra, Nisiha, Cūlāo) refer to the order. The discipline was early under the care of the most senior ones. The texts deal, namely, with chastity (bambhacera) in Utt. 16, with inner and outer humility (vinaya) in Dasav. 9, 4, with lack of self-control (asamāhi), with obvious transgressions (sabala), with disrespect for the dignity of older ones (āsāyanā) in Dasā 1-3, with the requirements of a Gaņa leader (gani-sampayā) and with the respect (viņaya) of the disciple in Dasā 4, with the acquisition of extra-sensory knowledge (citta-samāhi) as a prize for pious conduct in Dasā 5,93 with the practice and stages (padimā) of the laity and monks in Dasā 6 and 7, with delusion (moha) in Dasā 9(34) and with seizure of property (oggaha) in the conclusion of Āyära II 7, 2. These presentations, put together each in a specific number of cases, are (10) scattered remainders (in the Utt. and Dasav. included for teaching purposes) of a disciplinary collection put in the mouth of theras, a collection that is arranged in numbers exactly like the Thāna and Samavāya, as is still evident today in the series 8-12 in Dasā 4–7 and 20, 21, 33 in Dasā 1-3.
The question texts, as one can call them, finally, make up a large part, just as the narrative pieces. The Jīvābhigama and the Pannavaņā represent practically completely, the Jambuddīvapannatti at least in considerable volume, how Mahāvīra teaches his chief disciple Goyama Indabhūi who poses questions. Moreover, the Jivābhigama goes back to the therā
In his personal copy Schubring notes in pencil: "not therehim bhagavanthehim" (WB). 52 Utt. 2: je (parisahe) bhikkhū soccā naccā abhibhūya ... putho no ninhavejjā; Utt. 29: ... ajjhayane ... paveie jam sammam saddahitta 10 bahave jīvā sijjhanti 5; Dasav. 4: chajjivaniyā nām'ajjhayanam ... paveiyā (!) su-y-akkhāyā (!) su-pannattā (!). (Further: seyam me ahijjium; (since] ajjhayanam [is] dhamma-pannatti.)
3 Here the beginning is in three stages: to the formula suyam me follows the reference to the theras, after it the secondary Varnaka-beginning which, because it mentions Mahāvīra as the preacher, is directly contrary to what precedes it. With the form thāņāim the thera-introduction proves to be younger than the thānā introduction. This third introduction seems to be inserted with the intention to prove Mahāvira's authorship also of this subject.
34 See Schubring 1935 $ 51.