Mahaviras Word

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

Page 49

Mahăvira's Words by Walther Schubring
as the case may be, to the (concealed) glow of a (dried up) heap of dung (phumphuā = karīságni, Desin. 6,84), to the [blazing] flame of a forest fire and to the [insatiable flame) of the burning city.
We return now) to the Viyahapannatti in order to show once more how Mahāvira teaches with wit a questioner who was not at all sure to be satisfied with his information (18, 10).78 "Is sarisava edible according to you?", the brahmin Somila asks him." I may not misuse those of my age, Mahāvīra answers with a bold play on words—because (24) the abhakkheyā sarisavā are for him in the first place abhaksyāḥ sadssa-vayasaḥ0—but a monk may eat mustard if someone else has prepared and given it to him. The same presupposition is valid for māsa-beans, although neither māsa as a month is the object of enjoyment, nor may māsa as a measure of weight of gold or silver be an object of possession; the same holds for kulattha although a kulasthā, a member of a good family, may naturally not be enjoyed by a monk. Si
Although Mahāvira's role in the formation of the doctrine itself must be basically disregarded here, as mentioned above (p. 27), two cases nonetheless may in conclusion be referred to in this respect since to the reader of the fifth Anga they are conspicuous as being peculiar to the founder. First the sentence: the irrevocable factum®2 that was put at the very beginning of the text, from which it is clear that already at that time it was regarded as a revered passage, indeed a sense for what is really ancient in the fragments handed down is clearly evident:83
"What is about to move, is regarded as moving; what one is about to set in motion, as set in motion; what one is about to make tangible, as made tangible; what one is about to get rid of, as gotten rid of; what one is about to cut, as cut; what one is about to break, as broken; what one is about to burn, as burnt; what one is about to kill, as killed; what one is about to eradicate, as eradicated.” “These nine word (-pairs "-called as such in special remarks further—"are [intrinsically] different
"* In this case he thought of making him a nippatha-pasina-vägarana. " According to Abhayadeva chala-grahaņenopahāsârtham. 30 And as such mitta-sarisavā, i.e., saha-jāyayā, S.-vaddhiyaya and saha-pamsukiliyā. "Perhaps the same superior manner of reply is evident already in the previous section) where Somila asks about the terms jattā, javanijja, avvābāha and phāsuya-vihāra.
82 Leumann 1885a, p. 101 fn. 4.
* Cf. the beginning of the Bambhacerāim, several beginnings in the Cūlāo with their reference to niggantha (see Schubring 1921a, p. 8, also note 33 above), Kappa 1, Iff, with its special case, etc.