________________
514
JOHANNES BRONKHORST
This passage is interesting for various reasons. It confirms our earlier observation concerning the strong link between Ajivikas and nakedness. The development that can be discerned from class two to class five ist one of increasing nakedness, or respect for nakedness. Buddhist monks are in this respect exceeded by Jainas who wear just one garment:22 these by Ajivikas who wear no clothes at all. Lay disciples of naked monks rank between Jainas and Ajivikas, i.e.. higher than Jainas. It seems likely that in this passage, too, acelaka is to be understood as a synonym of ajivaka..
Interestingly, the same three individuals characterised here as constituting the supremely white class, are presented as naked in the Mahasaccaka Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya, in the following passage which is put in the mouth of Saccaka the Nigantha's son:23
Well, there are, for example. Nanda Vaccha, Kisa Sankicca. Makkhali Gosala. They go naked, rejecting conventions, licking their hands, not coming when asked, not stopping when asked: they do not accept food brought or food specially made or an invitation to a meal; they receive nothing from a pot. from a bowl, across a threshold, across a stick, across a pestle, from two eating together, from a pregnant woman, from a woman giving suck. from a woman lying with a man. from where food is advertised to be distributed, from where a dog is waiting, from where flies are buzzing, they accept a fish or meat, they drink no liquor, wine or fermented brew. They keep to one house, to one musel, they keep to two houses, to two morsels they keep to seven houses, to seven morsels. They live on one saucerful a day, on two saucerfuls a day on seven saucerfuls a day. They take food once a day, once every two days once every seven days, and so on up to once every fortnight; they dwell pursuing the practice of taking food at stated intervals.
For our present purposes it is particularly interesting to see that the Jainas are described in the above passage from the Arguttara Nikaya as "wearing a single garment" and therefore as not being naked.24 This supports our conjecture that the Jainas mentioned in the early Buddhist texts are primarily the followers of Parsva. The followers of Mahavira, if this conjecture is correct, might then be included among the Ajivikas. The fact that the lay disciples of the naked ascetics are described as wearing white clothes (odatavasana) does not conflict with this hypothesis: exactly the same term is elsewhere used to describe the lay followers of Nigantha Nataputta (e.g. MN II.244), as it is to describe the lay followers of the Buddha (e.g. DN III.37).
If we wish to check our hypothesis to the extent possible we have to keep in mind that the followers of Parsva distinguished themselves. not just on one, but on two counts from the followers of Mahāvīra: they wore clothes and followed four rather than five vows or restraints. What was the position of the Jainas depicted in the Buddhist canon?
515
JAINAS AND AJIVIKAS
The Samannaphala Sutta of the Digha Nikaya attributes the following views to Nigantha Nätaputta:"5
a Nigantha is bound by a fourfold restraint. What four! He is curbed by all curbs Twn), enclosed by all curbs, cleared by all curbs, and claimed by all curbs. And as far as a Nigantha is bound by this fourfold restraint, thus the Nigantha is called self-perfected, self-controlled, self-established
A Sutta of the Samyutta Nikaya, too, characterises Nigantha Nataputta as well bound by a fourfold restraint (catuyamasusamvuta; SN 1.66). Hermann Jacobi noticed, already in 1880 (p. 160 (799)). that the fourfold restraint here attributed to Mahavira and his followers really belonged to Mahavira's predecessor Paršva. It is true that the specification of these restraints in the Samaññaphala Sutta does not agree with what we leam from the Jaina canonical texts; T. W. Rhys Davids (1899: 75 n. 1) concluded from this that these restraints were not intended to represent the four vows kept by the followers of Parsva. It seems however safer to agree with Maurice Walshe where he states (1987: 545 n. 115): "[The four restraints of the Samannaphala Sutta) do not represent the genuine Jain teaching but seem to parody it in punning form."
How are the four restraints of Parsva enumerated in the Jaina texts? The Thanamga (which qualifies them as taught by "the twenty-two arhats in the middle except for the first and the last one" enumerates them as follows:25
[I] savvão paṇātivãyão veramanam "Abstaining from all killing" [2] savvão musavãyão veramanan "Abstaining from all lying" [13] savvao adinnadanao veramanam "Abstaining from all taking what has not been given"
[4] sarvao bahiddhadana veramanam.
Regarding the meaning of hahiddhadana there is some difference of opinion. Schubring (1962: 30) resumes the situation as follows: "The ... word [buhiddhadina] by [Abhayadeva's Sthanangavṛttil 202 a is taken as bahirdhadana and commented as accepting (aduna) from outside'. i.e. the accepting of things not belonging to the monk's standard outfit. This prohibition is said to include the 'possession of a female individual. Thus, as Abhayadeva adds. Pasa's (= Parsva's) fourth commandment would correspond with Mahavira's both fourth and fifth (sexual abstention and non-possession...). The former of these two Leumann sees expressed in bahiddha-dana (sic). 'a decent term for 28 copulation (the delivery of sperm). Thus it is Pasa's third vow that corresponds with both the third and fifth of Mahavira's including
