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PIOTR BALCEROWICZ
be directly related to Pkt.: pasina < Skt.: prašna (similar to the Milinda-pañha), a hint to which is found in RP $ 719; no atthāim heūim pasiņāim kāraṇāiṁ vāgaraņāim pucchai.
The whole book of RP bears its title after the central dialogue contained in its two chapters, known as Paesi-kahānayam. The Solar Deity Sūriyābha (Skt.: Sūryābha) pays homage to Mahāvīra and, along with his retinue, stages a dance performance. Subsequently, Mahāvīra replies to a number of questions asked by his close disciple Goyama (Skt.: Gautama), who wishes to know who Sūriyābha was in his previous birth. We learn that he was a wicked materialist acting against the moral law (Pkt.: ahammia / adhammiya, s. adharmika), called Paesi / Paesī, which is sanskritised in commentaries as Pradeśin. In the sequel, we also learn of governor Paesi's encounter with a prince-monk Kesi/ Kesī (Skt.: Kesin), a follower of Passa / Pāsa (Skt.: Pārsva), the 23rd tīrthamkāra.
Kesi is apparently of aristocratic birth, as well; this is suggested by his appellation kumāra-samāņe: 'prince-ascetico; an alternative understanding 'young ascetic' or 'a monk initiated in his childhood' seems less plausible in view of the fact that he address rāja Paesi by his name (see RP 737 ff.) and treats him as equal by birth (cf. BOLLÉE,
. 45-46). Further, his noble birth is indicated in the text (RP 686: jāisaṁpanne kula-saṁpanne). He is the same monk that features in a conversation with Mahāvīra's disciple Goyama in Uttar 23 (that Goyama can hardly be the same person as Goyama of RP who asks Mahāvīra about Kesi's previous births). All the most important features also match: he is known as Pārsva's follower (Uttar 23.1), is surrounded by numerous disciples, is called 'prince-ascetic' (23.2: kesī kumāra-samāņe) and is, as it is emphasised, possessed of two kinds of supernatural knowledge: testimonial cognition and clairvoyance (Uttar 23.3: ohi-nāāna-sue = RP 746).
As if incidentally, or rather: entangled in the course of events by virtue of his charioteer Citta, Paesi - while strolling in a park - comes across a Jaina monk, who gives a sermon to his followers. The governor, whose Weltanschauung is laconically described by the Jainas as 'the doctrine (maintaining that] the soul is the same as the body' (taj-jīva-tac-charīra-vāda), questions the monk's claim that the soul exists and that there is life after death. In a animated dispute, he attempts to demonstrate that neither empirical observation nor conducted experiments allow to acquiesce to the Jaina teaching that 'the soul is not the same as the body, that it is not the case that the soul is the same as the body' (RP 748-750: anno jīvo annar sarīram;
