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Uposatha and Posaha in the Early Histories of Jainism...... : 43
strictly observe the Posaha on the fourteenth and eighth days of each fortnightē. (SK 2:249, transl. Jacobi 1968).
The juxtaposition could demonstrate more if differently worded, but even as it stands, we can see first that in this oldest layer of Jaina literature, the posaha was observed by laity and not by monastics. In fact, the phrasing further alerts us to the posaha as an opportunity for Śrāvakas, who cannot maintain full monastic discipline, to temporarily approximate it. As with the iterations we discussed earlier, it makes little sense for monks to observe a day of avoiding things which they have already promised to avoid for life. Observe here as well that the practitioners that Mahāvīra identifies are not necessarily Jains, but followers of the Sramaņas. Here we have the first direct suggestion from the Jaina side of the posaha as a rite shared with other sects, a fact which will eventually become crucial to my total argument. The Uttarādhyayana, in V.23, also says that faithful householders ought never miss the observance. We still seem to have a total agreement on the exclusive participation of the laity in the posaha. Another early source, the Kalpasūtra, attempts a separate and, I propose, wholly innovated and novel explanation of the source of the posaha:
In that night in which the venerable Ascetic Mahāvīra died & C (all down to) freed from all pains, the eighteen confedrate the King of Kāśī and Košala. The nine Mallakis and Licchavis on the day of new moon instituted an illumination on the Posadha, which was a fasting ay; for they said: 'Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter!'(KS
trans. Jacobi 1974 [1884) 266). It seems that the Jains accept the existence of an already-founded posaha at the time of Mahāvīra. I do not know of any claim that Mahāvīra instituted the posaha, and in fact, in later literature it is claimed to have also existed at the time of Supārsvanātha, the 9th
