Studies in Jainism

Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta

Page 132

ETHICO-RELIGIOUS CLASSIFICATIONS
OF MANKIND AS EMBODIED
IN THE JAINA CANON*
The problem of studying mankind is complicated; so
I various methods have been adopted to solve it. One of them is that of scientific classification-an art well-known to India from hoary antiquity. Consequently it is no wonder, if the Jainas in ancient times possessed a remarkable mastery therein. As a corroborative evidence may be pointed out plenty of bhangas or permutations and combinations one comes across, in the Jaina philosophy. The attitude of the Jainas in systematically grouping the different entities may very well account for the various sorts of classifications of human beings? expounded in the Jaina canonical literature. As the main object of this article is to throw light on this subject, I shall begin with a classification having an ethical tinge about it.
Sadhu and Asādhu
In Sūtrakstānga (1.13. v. 1 and 42 ) humanity in its entirety is divided into two classes : (1) sādhu or the virtuous and (2) asādhu or the wicked, the natural divisions of mankind one can expect and approve of. Each of these can be further divided into two groups:- (a) happy and (b) unhappy. This means that we have four types of
* By courtesy: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute, Vol. 15, pp. 97ff. Even the minimum and maximum numbers of human beings existing at any time are pointed out in Anuyogadvärasūtra (Sūtra 142). This topic is discussed by me in the paper communicated to the Jubilee Sessions of the Indian
Mathematical Society held in December 1932. 2. For the English translation of these two verses see S.B.E. vol.
XLV, p. 320.