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The Teachings of Arhat Pārsva And The Distinctness of His Sect
Among the Nirgrantha Tirthankaras, the historicity of Arhat Parsva as well as of Jina Vardhamana Mahāvīra has been fully established. Inscriptional and literary evidences play an important role in establishing the historicity of a person. The earliest inscription relating to Parsva, of the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.,' has been found from the Kankali Tilă, Mathura. It is inscribed on an image of Parśva, installed by Ghosaka, a disciple of Gani Aggahiniya of the Sthaniyakula of the Kottiya-gana, a sub-order of friars and nuns also noticed in the hagiological list (earlier part, c. A.D. 100) of the Paryusana-kalpa (compiled c. A.D. 503/516). Though uninscribed, a more than life size sculpture of Pārsva (upper part mutilated)3 and a tiny figure of Pārsva as the central focus of an ayagapatta, both stylistically datable to the period of the Saka king Sodas (c. early 2nd cent. A.D.), prove that Arhat Parsva was venerated in, and arguably before, that period. A metal image of Parsva in the Prince of Wales Museum, variously dated between the 2nd-1st cent. B.C. to c. 2nd cent. A.D., is one more early piece in evidence.
The inscriptional as well as the literary references to the Nirgranthas, however, are met with from c. third century B.C. The term "Niggantha" is mentioned in the inscription of Maurya Asoka and is fairly frequently met with in the Pali Tripitaka' (usually, of course, in hateful and denegatory terms) though this cannot be taken as a conclusive evidence for the earlier church of Parsva because the term Niggantha by then also had included the sect of Mahavira. In point of fact, the Pali canon confounded a few views and teachings of these two historical Tirthankaras. As demonstrated in the early days of the Nirgranthic researches by Jacobi, in the Tripitaka it is said that Niggantha Nataputta (Mahavira) preached căturyama-samvara, while in point of fact the preacher of the caturyama-dharma was Arhat Pärśva and not Mahavira according to the Ardhamăgadhi canon of the Nirgranthas themselves." Mahavira preached five-fold great vows (pañca-mahāvratas) and not the caturyāma-saṁvara.
What we today can know about the teachings of Arhat Parsva and the distinctness of his sect from that of Jina Vardhamana is only through the available Ardhamägadhi canon preserved in the Northern Church of Mahavira, because the ancient church of Parsva was later progressively
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absorbed in the former and the records and texts relating to its hagiology and history are long lost.
Nirgranthologists like Pt. Sukhlal Sanghvi and others were of the opinion that the Purva literature (so often mentioned in the canonical literature from the late Kuṣaṇa period onward) had belonged to Pārsva's tradition."" At present, however, no texts of that category of specification exists. Today, in so far as our knowledge of Pārsva's teachings and traditions goes, we are dependent on the canonical literature of Mahavira's tradition, and, to a very small extent, on the Pali canon of the Buddhists as well.
In the Ardhamagadhi canon, the Isibhāsiyain (Rṣibhāsitani1 the Acaranga," the second book, the Sütrakṛtänga." the Vyakhyaprajdapti," the Jñatädharmakatha," the Uttaradhyayana and the Raja-Pradesiya," the Narakavalika." and the Sthānanga" reveal some significant references to Pārsva, his teachings as well as traditions. In the Uttarädhyayana, the Samaväyänga," the Avasyakaniryukti, the Visesavasyakabhasya of Jinabhadragani kṣamāśra-mana," the Avasyakacum and in the Paryusana-kalpa" as well as in the Mülācāra of the Yapaniya Church there are references to some distinctive (and hence distinguishing) features of the sects of Parsva and Mahavira.
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On Parsva's life and the history of his times and of his sect, scanty material is traceable in these works; yet it is significant that they contain sufficient material pertaining to the ethical teachings and philosophical doctrines of Pārśva. They also firmly point toward the distinctness of Pārsva's sectarial tradition from that of Vardhamana.27
The Teachings of Parsva in Isibhäsiyain
The earliest and authentic version of Pārsva's philosophy and teachings is encountered in the Isibhäsiäin (Rsibhāṣitāni)," a text compiled c. 1st cent. B.C. but often containing material that goes back to c. 4th century B.C., some even perhaps earlier. In a separate article,29 I had suggested that the Isibhāsiyāiñ, in terms of some of its content, is earlier than the whole of Pali as well as the Ardhamagadhi canonical literature excepting of corse the first book of the Acaranga. M.A. Dhaky opines that this text belongs to Pärśva's tradition. I, however, hold a different view. In my opinion the text, in earlier times, might have
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