Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 73

59 PRAŚNA-VYAKARANANI (PANHAVAGARANAIM) those who can be harmed, and that which should not be done. It consists in hurting, killing, doing violence, oppressing, killing in three ways of thought, word, and deed, emulating, ending the lease of life, and the like. Harming life is an iniquity of which the consequences are bitter. It is of various kinds and it has various modes. It causes pain and brings misery to others. It is an outcome of unrestraint. In this connection our text furnishes a long but interesting list of the fauna and flora, classified according to the number of senses possessed by them. Many are the root causes that lead beings to commit this sin. The main causes are, however, anger, pride, conceit, and greed, all of which are ultimately rooted in delusion. It stands to destroy all good things in men. In the same connection our text discusses the position of the professional boar-killers, fish-catchers, fowlers, hunters and the like. It also discusses the position of several cruel tribes and peoples such as the Śakas, Yavanas, Šabaras, Barbaras, Kāyas, Murundas, Udas, Bhadakas, Tittikas, Pakkanikas, Kulākṣas, Gaudas, Simhalas, Parasas, Kroñcas, Andhras, Drāvidas, Bilvalas, Pulindras, Arosos, Dumbas, Pokkanas, Gandhahārakas, Vālhīkas, Jallas, Romas, Māsas Bakusas, Malayas, Cuñcukas, Cūlikas, Konkanakas, Medas, Pahlavas, Mālavas, Mahuras, Abhāsikas, Anakkas, Cīnas, Lāhsikas, Khasas, Hāsikas, Neharas, Mahārāştras (Maustikas), Arabas, Davilakas, Kuhaņas, Kekayas, Hūņas, Romakas, Roravas, Marukas and Cirātas (Kirātas).1 The list of tribes and peoples notorious for their cruel habit and nature is sufficient to indicate that our text is a compilation of a postChristian period.
The second door to impiety is lying which is defined and characterized as telling an untruth which makes a person light and fickle, which is fearful, which causes enmity and brings ill-fame and the like. It is an immoral act in which the lowborn persons indulge. It is cruel in its effect and it makes a liar untrustworthy. It is deprecated by the best of saints. It is linked up with the blackest of soul colourings and it only serves to increase a man's state of woe and degradation, and to bring about the cycle of re-births. It carries with it the idea of indulgence in falsehood, cheating, deceiving, crookedness, false deposition and uscless talks and the like. Anger, greed, fear and envy are the various mental factors that are behind lying. This door to impiety also includes the preaching and promulgation of false doctrines and misleading
1 For details of some of these tribes vide B. C. Law, 'Tribes in Ancient India' (Bhandarkar Oriental Series No. 4).