Book Title: Rushibhashit Sutra
Author(s): Vinaysagar, Sagarmal Jain, Kalanath Shastri, Dineshchandra Sharma
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
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Canonical works, the Suttanipata has recognised the influential personality and value of the works of Mankhali Goshalak by including his name in the list of six Teerthankaras contemporary to Buddha'4. Rishibhashit has gone a step further and eulogised him as Arhat Rishi.
As such from the viewpoint of religious tolerance, the period of Rishibhashit is earlier than that of Pali-Tripitak. This is because the growth of sectarianism sets in only after a religion becomes properly organised. Rishibhashit indicates that it had been written much earlier than the beginning of sectarianism in the Jain tradition. Except the first Shrutaskandha of Acharanga all the other Jain canonical works reflect sectarian views in varying degrees. This proves that, leaving aside first Shrutskundha of Acharanga, Rishibhashit is the oldest of all Jain canonical works. Even the language and style indicate it to be a work of a period some-where between first Shrutaskandha of Acharanga and first Shrutaskandha of Sutrakritang.
The oldest work of Buddhist Tripitak literature is Suttanipata's, but even that is not as tolerant as Rishibhashit. The Tripitak literature refers to some of the Rishis of Rishibhashit, namely-Narad|6, Asit Deval!?, Ping, 18 Mankhaliputtal', Sanjaya (Velatthiputta20), Vardhaman (Nigganth Naatuputra!), Kumaputta22 etc; but they have been considered at a lower level than Buddha. In other words these Buddhist works were also not free of sectarian bias, and as such they should be of a later period.
Many excerpts of the chapters in Rishibhashit are found, with similarity in content, language, and composition, in Sutrakritang, Uttaradhyayan, and Dashvaikalik of Jain tradition and Suttanipata and Dhammapada of Buddhist tradition. As such in terms of style of these works Rishibhashit proves to be of an earlier period. It may be argued that the ideas and verses may have gone from Buddhist Tripitak literature and Jain Uttaradhyayan and Dashvaikalik to Rishibhashit. But this is not true because the language and style of Rishibhashit is older as compared to that of these works; also it is much nearer to the language and style of the first Shrutaskandhas of Acharanga 134 faylfTE YAT
