Note On Class Of Ascetics Called Unmajjaka

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 15

The class of ascetics called unmajjaka
231
tura Nasa le inter bly tre
however surprising the English expression may be. On sarvasvetam T. Ganapati Shastri86 aptly remarks (in his Sanskrit commentary based on the Malayalam Bhāşya) among other things: sarvasvetatvam ca devatāvarnaviśvāsārtham. It is at least probable that an unmajjaka ascetic, turned agent, is used here to create the impression that he is the Lord of the Waters" or a Nāga king by seemingly disappearing and reappearing in water. But the alternatively possible interpretation cannot also be entirely ruled out, namely that simply an agent who is especially trained in swimming and diving is selected for this job, and, to be sure, the expression jațilavyañjana speaks clearly in favour of this alternative87
Besides udavāsa the Vaidika-Padānukrama-Koşa (Vedāngas) has also an entry udakavāsa, and refers for this un-Pāņiniyan compound to VasDhS 29.6 nagadhipatir udakavāsāt, translated by Bühler "by staying (constantly) in water he becomes a lord of elephants”. Indeed, the context strongly supports the assumption that it is the particular ascetic practice under discussion in the present note which is referred to here. Bühler's interpretation of nāgādhipatir, however, is most probably, nay clearly wrong. What one expects, and by no means only because of the passage from the AŚ examined just now, is a close relation between the unmajjakas and the Nāgas inhabiting the waters under the earth, or rather representing them . The second reference is to SumantuDhs”: gobrāhmaṇasarire rudhiram utpădya udakavāsam kuryāt /, the only passage where the practice of udavāsa is prescribed as a präyaścitta”; but on the many and close links between tapas qua asceticism and qua atonement I need not dwell here.
86. I use the reprint, viz. The Arthasāstra of Kautalya with the Commentary "Śrimüla" ... With an elaborate Introduction by N.P. Unni, Delhi-Varanasi 1984, Pt. III. p. 186.
87. Cf. also Gaņapati Shastri's explanation (I.c., see note 86) antarıdakavāsinam caranavidyayodakāntarvāsasilam /.
udaka
88. O.c. (see note 14), p. 136.
89. Cf. e.g. Mbh. 1.206.13 (kingdom of Nāgas located antarjale). - In this connection it is also interesting to note that according to Mbh 10.17 (see above p. 223) Mabādeva by his udavāsa practice creates the plants and other food necessary for life.
90. Ed. by T.R. Chintamani, JOR Madras (1934), pp. 75-88.
91. A second instant I have however chanced upon in the meantime, is the verse
brahmacāri yo 'śniyān madhumāmsam katharcana/ so triny ahāny upavased
ekāham codake vaset // quoted from Manu (yatha manuh) by Vrsabhadeva in commenting on the passage yäni loke tapastvenābhikhyātäni brahmacaryadhaḥsayanodavāsacāndrāyaṇādini of the so-called Svopajñavrtti on Vākyapadiya I. 11 (ed. K.A. Subrahmania Iyer, Poona 1966, p. 40.5). Vrsabhadeva seems to have fallen prey to a failure of his memory, for the first half of the verse he quotes corresponds to Manu 11.158ab (followed there by sa ktvā prāktarn kcchram vrataśesam samāpayet / and the second half is actually Manu 11.157cd (preceded there by mäsikānnam tv yo 'śniyād asamāvartako dvijah).