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Rishibhashit : A Study
55
other Sraman traditions like Ajivak, Buddhist, and Hasti-tapas etc. and they present the special attributes of their respective traditions.
Sutrakritang-churni also gives stories of his present and past births. According to the story he was the son of the king of Aardrakpur. Abhay Kumar had presented him an idol of Rishabh.Which inspired him to abandon the mundane life. In the Basantpur town a girl playfully took him as her husband and ultimately he had to marry her. But a few days later he once again moves out to become a monk and meets various monks as stated earlier. It is difficult to adjudge the authenticity of this story but one thing is certain, that he was some historical monk of the period of Buddha and Mahavir. The details of his discussions with monks of various traditions, narrated in Sutrakritang, confirm that he was either influenced by or belonged to the Nirgranth (Jain) tradition.
As regards his preachings in Rishibhashit are concerned, he preaches to be away from the lusty pleasures of the mundane world. According to him sexual desires are ailments and are the root cause of degradation. The people afflicted with sexual desires are sufferers of woes. Sexual desire is a sharp knife, it is poison. As long as a being does not destroy this knife or poison of sex he can not be liberated from the cycles of birth. The intellectual and scholar should try to remove his tarnishments every moment. When a single good deed of one moment is enormously beneficial, why would the efforts towards liberation not result in infinite benefits.
This discourse does not contain anything special or original. Many couplets of this chapter can be found in Uttaradhyayan and Dash-vaikalik with little verbal variations. The mention of Aardrak in an old work like Sutrakritang proves that he must have been a historical person. Besides Jain tradition, Aardrak does not find any mention in Buddhist and Vedik tradition, as such it is difficult ro present comperative study of his life and works. Absence of his name in other traditions indicates that he was connected with Nirgranth (Jain) tradition also.
29. VARDHAMAN
In the 29th chapter of Rishibhashit220 are collected the preachings of Arhat-rishi named Vardhaman, According to the traditional belief of Jains he is said to be a Pratyek-Buddha or Arhat Rishi of the sect of Teerthankar Parshwa, but in my opinion this Vardhaman is none else but Bhagwan Mahavir himself. The family name of Mahavir, according to Jain tradition, is Vardhaman. Kalpsutra and Chaturvinshat-stav refer
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