Sectional Studies In Jainology II

Author(s): Klaus Bruhn
Publisher: Klaus Bruhn

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Sectional Studies
35
K. Bruhn
and they will be supplemented by the minor research schemes introduced on pp.37-41 below. We should finally add that the SP include not only conspicuous developments, but also sporadic and unobtrusive particulars.
Amongst the most conspicuous instances of SP in the field of Jaina narrative literature are the use of clichés and the employment of the sthana pattern (a form of tabulation). Clichés have been studied by J. DELEU (Ni: 90-95), and further observations will be found in BRUHN Re ($3 and 58 5-8) as well as in BALBIR Vi (75-78).
The classical example of the sthāna pattern in Jaina narrative literature is provided by the biographies of the 24 Jinas (BRUHN Re: $10,8 15), but there are less technical forms as well, see Re: 3 on "hero-variation". A related pattern, also associated with the term sthana, occurs in the doctrine of karma (GLASENAPP Ka, p.64: margandsthana.s). It can be objected that the relevant pattern is a very general feature and that its occurrence in different contexts has no significance. But it is also true that the spiritual progress of a being forms a kind of karmic or soteriological biography and that the spiritual differences amongst the living beings suggest a kind of karmic or soteriological census. In both cases data are tabulated, and it seems, therefore, legitimate to associate narrative and karmic sthana.s.
Our next subject is the formal or informal subdivision of ancient works. We call "informal" all forms of subdivision which are not identical with the standard method of dividing a work into chapters and subchapters, e.g. the use of phrases, within a run ning text, which conclude preceding topics and introduce following topics. L RENOU has discussed the formal and informal subdivision of the Vişnusmrti (RENOU Vi). The same scholar has also studied the problem of division on other occasions (see FILLIOZAT Bi: xxvi). In the case of Jaina literature, observations on subdivision are rare, but N. BALBIR has described the division and composition of the AvasyakaNiryukti (BALBIR Āv: 83.3), and L. ALSDORF has made a number of observations on the "außerordentliche Freiheit in der Behandlung von Sinnesabschnitt und formalem Einschnitt" in Puspadanta's version of the UH (ALSDORF Ha: 182). These references show that subdivision in all its forms is a subject which deserves more than casual treatment in Jaina texts as well as everywhere.
Relevant to the wide field of literary transmission is the following statement by F. LACOTE, which refers to the Kashmirian Brhatkatha: ... quand une histoire existait sous deux versions, même très voisines, ils [les compilateurs) se sont efforcés de ne sacrifier ni l'une ni l'autre" (LACOTE Es: 141). This fact which was noticed by LACOTE during his Brhatkatha studies can be connected with a more general Indian tendency to preserve and amalgamate traditions and institutions which rival each other. Refer, for example, to the contamination of different versions in the account of the janmabhiseka of the Jina (ALSDORF Co: 142-43 and 144) and to the two accounts of Rama's slaying Vălin (SRINIVASAN Ra: 163-64).
Another subject which has been studied systematically is normalization in Jaina narrative literature (BALBIR No). We have already mentioned normalization as one of the standard examples of SP. This word is used by N. BALBIR mainly in the sense of moral censorship, or "Bowdlerization". It is, however, self-evident that the omnipresent Jaina doctrine necessitated changes in more than one form whenever Brahmanical themes were incorporated into Jaina literature. Therefore, for the sake of completeness, we refer the reader also to BRUHN Ca (pp.118-19) for the UH in general, and to KULKARNI Ra (Chapter 13), as well as JAIN Ra, for the Ramayana.
In the case of Jaina ethics, it may be expected that we use chains of terms as the standard example of SP. But chains of terms are ubiquitous in Indian thought and their presence in Jaina ethics can hardly be mentioned as a peculiarity. An evaluation under the heading «SP will only be possible after we have studied the specific role and the specific dynamism of chains in Jaina ethical literature.
Under the circumstances, we select as an example of SP the ambivalence of ethical terms. The highly speculative treatment of the term tapas in Jaina dogmatics can be used as a starting point. The meaning of this term is extended step by step so that we obtain a multi-layered conceptual structure. tapas has twelve forms, one of them being vinaya, and vinaya has in its turn seven forms, one of them being srdna, the latter term forming the well-known pentad of abhinibodhika jrdna etc. Refer in connection with the tapas dodekad to LEUMANN Au $ 30 and to Bhagavati pp.1061-68. In both works the text is almost identical, but see DELEU Vi: 292-94 for minor differences. The word "extension has been used by K. RÖPING - As, p.89: extension of the term yoga), and more comprehensive studies in the complex Brahmanical term tapas have been published recently by M. SHEE (Ta) and M. HARA (see SHEE Ta). It is not difficult to mention further examples from Jainism of ambivalent or equivocal ethical terms. The reader is referred to ahimsa (BRUHN Ah: $9), ajra (ALSDORF Ut: 203-04), aradhana (OETJENS Si: 93-102), Iriyavahiya kiriya in the Bhagavati (DELEU Le), iriyavahiya in Avašyaka texts (LEUMANN Ub: 2-3), parigraha (OHIRA Pa), parija (TATIA Pa), priyafcitta (CAILLAT At: 93-95), santyaktva (JACOBI Ta: 301), and vicikitsa (OETJENS Si: 223-31).
Each case requires a separate semantic analysis, and ambivalence is probably a general state of affairs rather than a specific phenomenon. What could be called a "phenomenon" is, at the most, a more or less uniform tendency on the part of the Jaina theorists to construe pseudo-explanations. Here, a term x is "explained" with the help of quasi-related terms (a, b, c,...), which are mobilized ad hoc and presented as different forms of x. Many examples are found in the form of post-canonical niksepa.s as studied by L. ALSDORF (ALSDORF Ni: dvasyaka-niksepa and uttaraniksepa) but, as the term tapas at least shows, we have seen there are also examples of pseudo-explanation in ethical terminology.