Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi

Page 18

IS JAINISM AN OFFSHOOT OF BUDDHISM?
a beautiful vase, Mahāvīra, a homely but still durable pot.' Weber points to the striking similarities between the five great vows of the Jainas and the five cardinal virtues of the Buddhists. Similarly Windisch compares the mahavratas of the Jainas with the 'ten obligations' of the Buddhists. From the similarities pointed out it may be agreed that one sect might have borrowers from the other but it is hard to determine whether the borrowed were the Jainas or the Buddhists.
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Similarity in regard to the measurement of the history of the world found in the two religions is sometimes pointed to in support of the contention that Jainism was modelled on Buddhism. But even a little reflection will show that this might not have been the case. The Jainas talk in terms of utsarpiņī and avasarpiņi with the six Aras. It is impossible to derive this division of time from the Buddhists who had a conception of four great kalpas and eighty smaller kalpas. The Buddhists might have had as their model the yugas and kalpas of the Brahmanic Hinduism. The Jainas might have been influenced by the Hindu mythological belief of the day and night of Brahma constituting the eras of mankind. In any case Buddhism does not seem to have influenced the Jaina division of time.
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The possibility that both the religions borrowed the ideas from the Hindus can't be ruled out completely. For instance the Baudhayana Dharma Sutra prescribes the following vows: abstention from injuring living beings, truthfulness, abstention from appropriating the property of others, continence and liberality. The first four great vows agree with those of the Jaina ascetics and are mentioned in the same order. The Buddhists also have the same virtues prescribed for their monks, though truthfulness is not given the second place in their list. Max Müller, Bühler and Kern hold this view and they have compared in detail the ascetic practices found in the three great religions and arrived at this conclusion.
16 op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 122-123
The striking resemblance between the Hindu concept of saṁnyāsa or the rules prescribed for the ascetic and for the Jaina and Bauddha bhikshus points to the fact that there is no reason to believe that the Jainas imitated the Buddhists in framing the rules and