Sacred Literature of Jains

Author(s): Ganeshchandra Lalwani, Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan

Page 71

SACRED LITERATURE OF THE JAINS
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himself; the history (12, 2) of Jayanti (aunt of the Kośămbi king Udāyaṇa, son of Saya iya (Satanika) grandson of Sahassaniya) who was the patron of the Vesālisā vayas, and who, after hearing the sermon of Mahāvira, became a bhikkhuņi.
All these legends, [302] the number of which will be materially increased by a special investigation of the contents give us the impression of containing traditions which have been handed down in good faith. They offer, therefore, in all probability (especially as they frequently agree with the Buddhistic legends) most important evidence for the period of the life of Mahāvira himself.
Among those statements which may be adduced as witnesses for the first composition of the existing form of the text, an enumeration of foreign peoples asserts the chief place. The names of these peoples recur frequently in some customary form in the remaining texts of the Siddhanta, though accompanied by numerous variations of detail.248 In 9, 33, 12, 2 there are enumerated the foreign female slaves and waiting maids in the house of a rich māhaņa (brāhmaṇa) ; consequently the names are all feminine : bahūhim khujjāhiṁ Cilātiyahiņ244 vämaņiyahiņ245 vadahiyahi TM246 Babbariyāhiņ247 Isigaạiyahim Vasaganiyāhiņ248 Palhaviyahi Hlásiyahi Laüsi yähim Ārabihiṁ Damilahis Siṁhalihiń Pulimdihim Pukkalihim249 Bahalihim Muramdihiṁ (Maruído Abh.) Saṁvarihiṁ (Savo Abh.) Pārasihiṁ nānādesīvīdesa paripiņdiyahiń. Of these names Palhaviyā, [303] Ārabi, Bahali, Muradi, and Parasi are of special interest, since they deal with a period from the second till the fourth century A. D., the age of the Parthian Arsacids and the Persian Sassanids ; cf. on Pahlavas (Parthians), Noldeke's remarks in my History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 338 ; on Muramda, Ind. Stud. XV. 280, on Babli, Bactria, Monatsberichte der Konial. Akad, der Wiss. 1879, p. 462. The Maruņdas especially appear together with the Sakas
243 I do not propose here to enter into a detailed discussion of these variations ; see
anga 6.1,117 (Steinthal, p. 28) up. 1,55 (Leumann, p. 60) etc. Besides this enumeration, there is another which occurs only in those texts which are characterized as younger from the fact that they contain this second enumeration. I refer to that of the Mlecchas, in which some fifty (not sixteen) names are quoted; see
anga 10, up. 4. 244 Cilat adesot panna Abh. cf. Kirāta. 245 Hrasvasarirabhiḥ Abh. 246 Vadabhiyāhim madahakosthābhiḥ Abh. (vakradhaḥkosthabhiḥ Schol. on up. 1). 247 Abh. adds Vaüsiyahin. 248 Vārugani yahim Abh. who adds Joniyähim after this name. 249 Pakka Abh.