Book Title: Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism
Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
View full book text
________________
SECTION I
UPONATHA
There is nothing incredible in the fact that there were some customs which were commonly prevailing in Indian religious life, and uposatha was one of such customs. Here follows a study of the same in the light of the three main faiths of India, the Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism.
(a) Brahmaņical The earliest reference to 'upavasatha', the Sanskrit original of the Pali 'upusatha' and Prakrit 'posaha', is made in the Satapatha. Brahmaral which prescribes the sacrificial rites called Darsa and Puranamāsa on the occasion. The term upavasatha stands for a fastday, specially the day preceding a Soma sacrifice, and also for the period of preparation for the Soma sacrifice. The Katyāyana. Srautasütra, too, appears to subscribe to the same view when it asserts that the upavasatha implies to live close to (the deities) which is possible only ly performing certain sacrifices accompanied by upavāsa (fast) twice a month, i, e., on the last days of the dark-half (amāvasya) and the bright-half ( paurnamāsa) of a month. The fasting is to be observed by the sacrificer on the instruction of the priests, and as such it is the duty of the householder. Hirapyakesin 4 while dwelling upon the significance of the upavasatha, opines that the upavasatha means 'to avoid the company of impious and to seek the company of virtuous.'
This much we read about the ceremony of upavasatha in the Brahmapical scurces. The Jaina as well as the Buddhist sources, on the other hand, contain elaborate rules as regards the different facets of the ceremony which will follow in the coming pages.
(b) Buddhist
According to an early tradition, the institution of the uposatha is ascribed to the request made by Bimbisára, the king of Magadha, to the
1, Op. cit., II. 1. 4; I. 1. 2. M. M. Williams, Sanskrit English Dictionary, Sub voce 'u pavasatha'. 3. Op. cit., IV. 15. 35; Cf Darsana Aur Cintana, Vol. II, p. 106. 4. upayrittastu pāp ebhyo yastu vāso gunaih saha upavasaḥ sa vijñeya --as
quoted in EB7, p. 134.
