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पुद्गल-कोश
६९३
change in the material organism, subtle or gross. The lesya of a soul has also such double aspect-one affecting the soul and the other its physical attachment. The former is called bhava-lesya. and the latter is known as dravya-lesya. A detailed account of the mental and moral changes in the soul and also an elaborate description of the material properties of various lesyas are recorded in the Jaina scripture and its commentaries.
In the Ajivika, the Budhist and the Brahmanical thought also, ideas similar to the Jaina concept of lesya are found recorded. The lesya qua matter is the 'colour-matter' accompanying the various gross and subtle physical attachments of the soul.3 This is the dravya-lesya The corresponding state of the soul of which the dravya-lesya is the outward expression is bhava-lesya. The dravya-lesya, being composed of matter, has all the material properties viz colour, taste, smell and touch. But its nomenclature as krsna ( black ), nila (dark blue ), kapota (grey, black-red" ), tejas (fiery, red), padma (lotus-coloured, yellow") and sukla (white), is framed after its colour which appears to be its salient feature. The use of colour-names to indicate spiritual development was popular among the Ajivikas and the lesya concept of the Jainas seems to have had a similar origin The Buddhists appear to have given a spiritual interpretation to the Ajivika theory of six abhijatis and the Brahmanical thinkers linked the colours to the various states of sattva, rajas and tamas.
Although it is difficult to determine the chronology of these ideas in these religions, there should be no doubt thet the concept of lesya was an integral part of Jaina metaphysics in its most ancient version The later Jaina thinkers made attempts at knitting up the doctrine of
1. Pp. 251-3 ( of the text).
2. Pp. 20ff.
3. P. 10 (line 5); also p. 13 (line 11).
4. P. 9 (lines 21ff).
5. P. 45 (line 13).
6. P. 45 (line 13).
8
7. P. 45 (line 14).
8. Pp. 254-7; also Glasenapp: The Doctrine of Karman in Jaina Philosophy, p. 47, fn 2; Pandit Sukhlalji Jain Cultural Research Society (Varanasi) Patrika No. 15, pp. 25-6.
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