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Sramanism As a Weltanschauung
hita, The Blugavata speaks of the royal sage Rsabha who became an avadhūta and in this context mentions the Vātaraśana śramanas and uses the epithet Kesa bhüri-bhärah' for Rsabha. Now the Rgvedasamhită has a Kesi.sukta which mentions'munayo vătaraśanáh'. Dr. Jain thus supposes that the Vedic reference is to Rsabha who was the first of the Tirthaikaras. While the references to Munis and Yatis in Vedic literature had been pointed out by me much carlier and the Keśi-sūkta had been interpreted in this context, the correlation of the evidence from the Bhagavata by Dr. Jain is of some interest. However, we cannot overlook the possibility of the Bhagavata actually having the Keśī sūkta in mind. In any case, it is clearly arguable that the Sramana tradition already existed in the Vedic period as an independent though little known tradition.
What was the shape of śramanisin in that archaic period can only be a matter of some speculation. The Sramanas or Munis were apparently homeless wandering ascetics who did not follow the ritualistic religion of the Vedic tradition. Vedic religion emphasized social and ritual obligations, emphasized happiness in this world as in the other and hoped to gain it from the gods. The idea of a beginningless cycle of lives, governed by an overarching law of Karman from which freedom could come only by the total renunciation of all the claims and impulses of instinctive life, this is an idea which falls outside the purview of early Vedic thought. In the middle Vedic period we do find references to the idea of Punarmstyu or repeated death, but that is in another world and does not clearly imply a rebirth here.' To take the idea of Punarmırtyu as a foreshadowing of the idea of Punar janma does not appear to be sufficiently warranted. Actually, the idea of Punarmộtyu occurs within a context where the efficacy of ritual is unfettered by any law of Karman. In the Upanişads a great change of ideas occurred and traditionally it has been assumed that the aim of the Upanişadic quest is to gain emancipation from the cycle of existence. Although there is no doubt that the Upanișads are not unacquainted with the ideas of Karman and Rebirth, it is equally clear that they do not wholly break away from the positive and life-affirming
6. H. L. Jain, Bharatiya Sanskrti men Jaina Dharma Ka Yogadāna. 7. Cf. G. C. Pande, Studies in the Origins of Buddhism, p. 28%.
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