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śramaņa, Vol 55, No. 1-6/January-June 2004
A word about the usage of the term 'Buddha', here, will not be out of place. More than a personal identity it represents a class identity. All those that are enlightened about the fact that one gets what one gives, that compassion begets happiness and that cruelty begets misery, that the way out of the mundane miseries is through the path of virtue and compassion are Buddhas. Rşabha was one and the very first such Buddha. With his advent the Śramanic tradition marks its beginning. Not to mention that He was followed by many more Buddhas both in the Jaina as well as in the Buddhist traditions. This paper aims at very briefly surveying the important epochs in the Jaina Śramana tradition form the time of first Jaina Buddha - Bhagavān Rşabhadeva to the penultimate - Bhagavān Pārsvanatha Śramaņa Tradition -
Šramana is a qualitative noun or an adjective that presupposes the qualities of endeavour and equanimity in a person bestowed with this title. A śramaņa, therefore, has to endeavour to sustain his life as well as his spiritual quest. Although his endeavours, are mostly spiritual in nature, he is not exempted from endeavours of mendicancy for sustaining life and that of spreading the gospel for the common spiritual weal while he endeavours to secure spiritual emancipation for himself. The Jaina and Buddhist monastic orders, besides some others, such as the Ājivakas that could not survive the ravages of time, have traditionally been known as Śramana traditions as their members devoted themselves to the physical as well as spiritual endeavours. Ancient Origin of Jaina Śramaņa Tradition -
The ancient origin of the Jaina Śramana tradition is amply borne out by both literary as well as archaeological evidence. The traditional Jaina history from the earliest times of the first Tirtharikara Lord Rsabhadeva (Circa third period of the descendent phase of the present time-cycle) to the last Tirtharkara Lord Mahavira (Circa 6th Century BC in the fourth period of the same phase of the current time cycle) can be traced from the events mentioned in the Jama scriptures.
According to the Jaina tradition, ages ago the first Tirtharkara, Lord Rsabhadeva, was the initiator of the transition of the human civilisation from that of the culture of e joyment (Bhoga saṁskrti in
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