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Sectional Studies
K. Bruhn
were the primary concern of the religious mind, e.g. in connection with gods and god desses or with eschatology and soteriology. We are not referring to primitive or popular religion in all its facets, but we suggest that a religious idiom in its own right has developed along with academic Jainism. In the Acaranga and Paryusanakalpa Sutra.s, Indra and Harinaigamaişin act together, a constellation which is not derived from the official pantheon (as forming part of Jaina cosmography); in early and in pre-medieval Jaina iconography, divinities like Sarasvati, Kubera, and Ambikā play an important part, heaven and hell are certainly viewed by most Jainas as approaching realities and not as purely technical phases in the process of transcendental pudgala-elimination (i.e. of karma annihilation); finally, moksa is probably for the majority more easily attainable than a distant state reached after immeasurable periods of time. No doubt, "religion" and "shastra" were not exactly distinct from one another, but we can assume that the world of the typical member of the Jaina community was not identical with the world of a Jaina pandit. Another type of fissure exists within the central sphere of Jainism, reflecting a subtle type of syncretism. We notice a democratic or ganization of the cosmos of beings where all souls are identical and a hierarchy of beings with the various types having different physical and psychical constitutions, we find true souls (jiva.s) and a secondary population of primitive souls (nigoda.s); in ethics, emphasis is sometimes on the act and sometimes on the attitude; finally, Jainism, as a whole, oscillates between ahimsa legalism and kasaya soteriology.
the status of a genre is its extent. We try to subdivide a large area, namely dogmatics, into a limited number of sub-areas. Minor subjects as discussed on p.40 are therefore no part of the present scheme. Narrative material is not to be excluded altogether, but it will be considered mainly in its subsidiary function vis-a-vis dogmatics.
A different approach is required in the case of certain minor genres. Here, we will isolate a compact material which is formed through the combination of minor genres, such as proverbs, epigrams etc. These minor genres need not be defined one by one, since we take advantage of the sectional principle which limits the material (only Jaina literature) and thus ensures a degree of coherence where the exact lines of demarcation (proverb vs. epigram, and so on) become less relevant. Taking erbs" as our starting point, we distinguish between proverbs in the usual sense of the word (BLOOMFIELD Pa: 208-19) and didactic subhasita. (BHOJAK Ca: 363-78). Again,
hasita.s can be classified according to their content (e.g. nari-ninda and nartprasamisa: BHOJAK Ca loc.cit.). Furthermore, it is possible to isolate proverbs etc. which have formal peculiarities (e.g. Sabdalamkara.s) in common. In addition, we can study the cosmos of upamana.s and the cosmos of kavisamketa.s, as reflected in our material. Last but not least, we have to consider the categories topos and Gleichnis, both as included in and as related to our material. Refer for Gleichnis (etc.) to BOLLÉE SU I-II (the registers) and to BOLLÉE Ut (jaha stanzas). For general reasons we add that M. BLOOMFIELD suggested not only a catalogue of motifs (BLOOMFIELD Ps: 54) but also an encyclopedia of proverbs (BLOOMFIELD PA: 208). BLOOMFIELD'S "pragmatic Sloka" (Pa: 199) could likewise be mentioned in the present context. So far we have only considered stray verses etc., as found in early and later Jaina literature. A different situation arises if we consider subhasita collections, where the special question of a subhasita typology arises. Here the reader is referred to L. STERNBACH who prepared a survey of "non-canonical subhasita collections in Jaina literature" (STERNBACH Su).
93. The implementation of the subsectional lists of $1
LITERARY GENRES. Related to the discussion of order and distinction is the discussion of the definition and classification of literary genres. Since no general answer is possible, we shall confine our discussion to two "devices" which avoid the crucial questions of definition and classification, rather than solving them.
In the case of the major genres we shall concentrate on early Jainism. Since the narrative material is very heterogeneous, both in form and content, it seems preferable to consider dogmatics alone. Here it is possible to isolate special sets of texts which are homogeneous either in their form or in their content. Although such sets may be large or small, what matters is the treatment, of one and the same subject, in different texts. We mention in the first place cosmographical literature and karma literature. However, it seems worthwhile to consider the question of whether subjects the "five great vows", "alms-round", and "fasting to death" do not likewise, form the basis for major, or rather medium-sized, genres. We can add literary material which seems to be unified by "form principles", such as the anguttara pattern or the niksepa pattern. That all these subjects can be studied with advantage is a truism. What matters in the present context is the question of whether we can demonstrate that such subjects, or isolates, show a certain analogy to genres, so that it becomes profitable to study them under the generic aspect. Amongst the criteria for assigning to a subject
List One: Narrative literature in Jainism. (1.1) The main task in connection with subsection 1.1 is the ordinary study of the Digambara UH, as well as the systematic comparison of the Svetambara and the Digambara UH. Since all the relevant versions of the UH are known today, a text presenting a piece of the UH in a new form would be a rare discovery. On the other hand, the UH is well suited for a systematic study not of all the parallel versions which it contains, but rather of the general problem of
parallel versions (1.7). Theoretically, "1.1" includes 1.2", but here we are concerned in the first place with the genuine parts of the UH (i.e. 1.1 without 1.2). — (1.2) The relevant themes of the non-Jaina cycles, i.e. the Brhatkatha (Vasudevahingi
