Shravakachar of Vasunandini

Author(s): Signe Kirde
Publisher: Signe Kirde

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5.3 Wheel of Rebirth and Death 5 TRANSLATION: ŚR (57-205)
being has fully attained/ developed the faculties",217 The phrase Pkt. amto-muhutta-kāle serves as an adjunct to the predicate samānei with a temporal function. According to the Jain doctrine sentience, when being subjected to mundane existence, generates several bodies by attracting matter. The bodies of the mundane existence undergo several modifications and adapt themselves to new conditions. The time period mentioned by our author lasts three quarters of an hour at the most .218
• pūi-ruhirai Vasunandin wants to point out that matter due to the activities of the sentient being effects the rebirth in various bodies. One simile by means of which the author in Śr (137-142; 177ff.) illustrates his idea of reproduction is that of the "womb". With the compound pai-ruhina the author conveys the impression of something disgusting. "The 'soul' that arrives there, having attracted impure matter in a time period lasting not longer than 48 minutes, enjoys it." (Prof. Balbir, p.c.). In the commentary of Śr (M) on (135-136): p.129, Sunilasagara mentions in detail how Jain authors conceived the "inhabitants of the grounds of earth"'s shape. They are described with respect to their functions only, serve as receptacles or serfs for gods: vessels, bellows, vaults, barges, trees, pack mules, oxen or elephants. In the deepest ground of the earth the beings are believed to exist as shape-, form-, and colourless matter. They are compared to an abyss, an endless field, a voluminous cup, or a trimming.
Rebirth in the Cold and Hot Regions of the Hells (tatta-siyanirayas)
138-139) If a heated iron ball which is in size equal to the cosmic mount Meru is thrown by someone into the hot hell, it does not arrive at the bottom of earth, but is destroyed in the intermediate space.
217Cf. for Pkt. pajjatti also the tabular list and the comments on the Pkt. declensions of the short and long i-stems by Van den Bossche 1999:48-49. Pkt. pajjatti, "completion"; "faculty"; "sufficience", is used as a technical term in Jain literature. By means of the term Jain authors classify the stages in the gradual development of the life functions of animals and plants, for instance with reference to their metabolism, the number of sense organs, and the number of other physical faculties. One set of categories by means of which Jain authors refer to these life functions is for instance "taking food" (ahāra), "body" (sarira), "sense organ" (indriya), "respiration" (ana-prāna or śvāsôcchvāsa), "speech" (bhāṣā), and "mind" (manas). Those faculties are further categorised under the four headings (1) parināma, (2) deha, (3) vedana, and (4) vikriya. See Gs Ji (665); (682-683) with the commentary. Cf. also the commentary of Śr (M), pp. 129 on (136); Ratnachandra 1923 [1988], Vol. III, pp. 401-402; Varni 2003-2004, Vol. III, p. 39.
218 See my notes on bhava in the second chapter, on ahareuna in the third chapter. Cf. also Jaini's note on the "Jain path of purification" in 1979:90, 355.
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