On Indian Sect of Jainas

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Jas Burgess

Page 27

the Buddhist tradition maintains that the last Jaina Tîrhakara died during Buddha's lifetime (see p. 34).
Footnote 20: Apart from the ill-supported supposition of Colebrooke, Stevenson and Thomas, according to which Buddha was a disloyal disciple of the founder of the Jainas, there is the view held by H. H. Wilson, A. Weber, and Lassen, and generally accepted till twenty-five years ago, that the Jainas are an old sect of the Buddhists. This was based on the one hand, upon the resemblance of the Jaina doctrines, writings, and traditions to those of the Buddhists, on the other, on the fact that the canonical works of the Jainas show a more modern dialect than those of the Buddhists, and that authentic historical proofs of their early existence are wanting. I was myself formerly persuaded of the correctness of this view and even thought I recognised the Jainas in the Buddhist school of the Sammatîya. On a more particular examination of Jaina literature, to which I was forced on account of the collection undertaken for the English Government in the seventies, I found that the Jainas had changed their name and were always, in more ancient times, called Nirgrantha or Nigantha. The observation that the Buddhists recognise the Nigantha and relate of their head and founder, that he was a rival of Buddha's and died at Pâvâ where the last Tîrthakara is said to have attained Nirvana, caused me to accept the view that the Jainas and the Buddhists sprang from the same religious movement. My supposition was confirmed by Jacobi, who reached the like view by another course, independently of mine (see Zeitschrift der Deutsch Morg. Ges. Bd. XXXV, S. 669. Note 1), pointing out that the last Tîrthakara in the Jaina canon bears the same name as among the Buddhists. Since the publication of our results in the Ind. Ant. Vol. VII, p. 143 and in Jacobi's introduction to his edition of the Kalpasútra, which have been further verified by Jacobi with great penetration, views on this question have been divided. Oldenberg. Kern, Hoernle, and others have accepted this new view without hesitation, while A Weber (Indische Studien Bd. XVI, S. 240) and Barth (Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, tom. III, p. 90) keep to their former standpoint. The latter do not trust the Jaina tradition and believe it probable that the statements in the same are falsified. There are certainly great difficulties in the way of accepting such a position especially the improbability that the Buddhists should have forgotten the fact of the defection of their hated enemy. Meanwhile, this is not absolutely impossible as the oldest preserved Jaina canon had its first authentic edition only in the fifth or sixth century of our era, and as yet the proof is wanting that the Jainas, in ancient times, possessed a fixed tradition. The belief that I am able to insert this missing link in the chain of argument and the hope of removing the doubts of my two honoured friends has caused me to attempt a connected statement of the whole question although this necessitates the repetition of much that has already been said, and is in the first part almost entirely a recapitulation of the results of Jacobi's researches.
Footnote 21: The statement that Vardhamâna's father was a mighty king belongs to the manifest exaggerations. This assertion is refuted by other statements of the Jainas themselves. See Jacobi, S.B.E. Vol. XXII, pp. xi-xil.
Footnote 22: Dr. Bühler by a slip had here "Magadha oder Bihâr".--J. B.
Footnote 23: This is General Cunningham's identification and a probable one.--Ed.