Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 93

Jaina Canonical Texts
God. But the differences it exhibits are equally noticeable, such as its recognition of permanent entities like the self and matter. In these it resembles Brahmanism, justifying the description that it is a theological mean between Brahmanism and Buddhism.”101
Jainism, as mentioned earlier, accepts certain principles in common with Brāhmaṇical religion, but this does not make any constraint for its independent origination and free development of the philosophy. In view of some of the peculiar tenets of Jainism the postulate has been advanced10% of a “great Magadhan religion, indigenous in its essential traits, that must have flourished on the banks of the Ganges in Eastern India long before the advent of the Aryans into Central India.” The influence of pre-Aryan religious beliefs and practices on later Vedic thought and on subsequent religious and artistic developments is generally admitted. But it is difficult to make any specific criteria for differentiating Aryan and pre-Aryan elements at this advanced and developed stage. Of course minute analysis will reveal the predominance of the preAryan thinking in Jainism. So far as Jaina thought is concerned, the suggestion of Charpentier still seems to be worth-noting: "It represents, probably, in its fundamental tenets one of the oldest modes of thought known to us, the idea that all nature, even that which seems to be most inanimate, possesses life and the capability of reanimation; and this doctrine the Jainas have, with inflexible conservation, kept until modern times.”103
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According to the Thānănga-sutra (p. 164b), the following persons are stated to be unfit for the Jaina order: Bāla (a child below eight years), vuddha (an aged), panda (an eunuch), vihiä (a sick man), jurgià (a person devoid of limbs), kiva (a timid person), jadda (dull-headed), teņa (a thier), rāyāyagāri (an enemy of the king), Unmatta (a mad man), adamsaņe (a blind), dása (a slave), duttha (a wicked), müdha (a stupid), anatta (one who is in debt), obaddha (an attendant), bhayai (a servant), sehanipphediya (a kidnapped person), guvvini (a pregnant), bālavacchā (a minor girl or a woman having a small child). The list shows that persons having unsound health and crippled structures are not able to follow the rigid rules of the Jaina order; and, they are, thus, exempted for ethical consideration.
'Ib d., p. 10.
*The Jaina texts are full of records relating to the causes for renunciation. The Thänänga (p. 473b) states the following reasons:
(i) chandă (out of free will); (ii) roså (out of anger);