Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

Author(s): W Norman Brown
Publisher: American Oriental Society

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23. KESI AND GAUTAMA
This chapter tells of the union between the followers of Pärśva, the twenty-third Jain Tirthamkara, and Mahavira's order. Parśva, who is assumed to have lived in the 8th century B.C., about 250 years before Mahavira, enjoined four vows upon his monks: not to injure living creatures, not to lie, not to take what was not given, not to possess property, but to wear two garments, an upper and a lower. Mahavira added the vow of complete chastity and interpreted the vow of not having possessions to exclude the wearing of any clothes whatever. At the time when Mahavira was preaching, a young but highly accomplished follower of Parśva, by name Keśi, once arrived at a park in Śrāvasti, and at the same time a venerable monk named Gautama, who was a disciple of Mahavira, also came to Srāvasti and took up his residence there. Both leaders lived in purity, and the disciples of the two were puzzled as to which professed the superior law. Knowing their disciples' thoughts, Kesi and Gautama decided to meet, and Gautama, although the elder, in deference to the greater age of Pārsva's order, went to Keśi. Besides the followers of the two teachers, the audience contained heretics, gods, and all sorts of non-human beings. Keśi opened the conference by asking Gautama about the discrepancy in the number of vows. Gautama replied in terms to show that Mahavira's fifth vow, that of chastity, was implicit in Pariva's teaching, although the earlier teacher had not felt it necessary to specify the restriction. Kesi accepted the explanation, and then asked about the difference in the rule concerning clothing, Gautama answered that the outward marks of holy men served only to make people recognize them as such, but the fundamentals of religion, leading to emancipation, were knowledge, faith, and right conduct, not those outward symbols. Again Kesi accepted the explanation, and the matter of clothing seemed to be left optional. With these points settled, the two continued in a long discussion of the Jain doctrine, referring to specific tenets by cliché catch terms, and finding agreement on every point. The two orders were thereupon united. The question of Mahavira's fifth vow, that concerning chastity, never again disturbed the order, but the difference about clothing was only superficially obliterated, and in the end the Jain community split into the Whiteclothed (vetämbara) and Sky-clothed (digambara) sects, which remain separate to this day.
The paintings which illustrate this chapter are not especially interesting. HV (fig. 89) shows the two monks seated in a grove engaged in discussion; above and between them is the fan-like lotus (cf. our fig. 119) which frequently accompanies representations of Gautama (cf. BrKS fig. 82), and seems to point to the left-hand figure in this painting as that of this disciple of Mahavira. DV (fig. 91) has a closely similar illustration, but the setting is architectural. JM (fig. 90) again has the two monks in conference, but below them squat three males listening and holding up their hands reverently. These may be laymen or gods.
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