Shravakachar of Vasunandini

Author(s): Signe Kirde
Publisher: Signe Kirde

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4.2 Numerical Patterns
4 STYLE OF ŚR (57-205)
In the Markandeya-purāna XIII 20 we find a description of the regions of the fiery grounds of earth. The idea expressed in this passage is that of the "death spirit" of evil-doers spending hundred years in a hell with flames of fires, where they are attacked by other creatures in the shape of birds with iron beaks. Additionally, one could refer to the Pāli Sutta-Nipāta III.10. There are allusions to a great amount or inexhaustible mass of time. The measure of time, which a evil man has to spend in the post-mortem sphere or field called "Padma", is counted by seeds. It is compared to a Kosalan cart filled with sesame seeds. All together, it adds up to five myriads of crores. The number "Eighty-four Hundred Thousand" appears not in Jain sayings only, but also in Buddhist poems in the context of the description of small hells, the niray-ussadas.121 Some of these numerical patterns occur in passages of pre-Islamic Persian religious scriptures, which could be called Zoroastrian "Wisdom Dialogues". 122 In a section of "Fargard III", 3.25ff. we find instructions of Zoroaster by the mythical teacher Ormazd (Ahura Mazda, the creater of the world). Zoroaster asks, what kind of food it is by which "righteousness" is accomplished. A song is taught to Zoroaster. A man, who sews corn, also sews righteousness, and he should nourish religion as much as he could ... with the feed of a hundred men, with the breast of a thousand women, with ten thousand sacrificial ceremonies [...]". When barley was created, the demons became startled and as it grew, the demons became depressed. When the corn started to blossom, the demons groaned, and when the corn ripened, the demons were forced back. In the house where demons dwell wealth decays. But if there was a store of grain (= righteousness), it would be, as if red hot iron were thrown into the throats of those demons.
Another scripture, Bundahis IV, 1,4, contains a song of lament in which we find related patterns in a different religious contexts. This ritual song is the lamentation of the ox. In primeval times the "spirit” of the ox leaves its
120 Markandeya-purāņa XIII quoted according to Pargiter 1904:74.
121 See the entries in Rhys Davids/ Stede 1921-1925:103. In the Mārkandeya-purāna, chapter LIV.15 (quoted according to Pargiter 1904:276), the number 8 400 000 refers to space, to the height of the range of the mountain Meru in the middle of the mythical continent Ilāvsta.
122 According to Eliade's entry 1987 (Vol. 15, pp. 400-403) the scriptures which are called "Wisdom Literature" are heterogenous. They are concerned with reflections about the nature of reality. Those texts consist mainly of dialogues, prose poems, stories, and rhythmical lyrics. For instance, two examples of Jain Wisdom Dialogues", are translated in Bollée 2002:364. Mainly, they contain elementary instructions, which derive from reflections or from experience. With regard to the Zoroastrian scriptures I refer to the English summaries in Dawson 1931, especially pp. 4ff., 130ff., 168ff. As suggested by Prof. Butzenberger (p.c.) it might be fruitful to examine related patterns in religious strings of thought beyond the range of South Asia. I refer to the bibliographies in Butzenberger 1996 and 1998.
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