Studies in Jainism

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

Page 138

ETHICO-RELIGIOUS CLASSIFICATIONS 129 From this it can be easily deduced that Jainism cares more for the merits of an individual than his or her birth in a high-class family. No place for varnāśrama in Jainism,
Out of the four varņas populary known as (1) Brāhmana, (2) Ksatriya, (3) Vaisya and (4) Śūdra, we find in the earlier portion of the Roveda the first three under the appelations Brahma, Ksatraand Vis. It is rather in the subsequent purusasūkta where Sudra is mentioned along with Brāhmaṇa, Rasanya and Vaisya. In Sūtrakrtānga (II. 6.48) we come across the words Māhana, Khattiya, Vesa and Pesa.
This, by no means, implies that Jainism sanctions the water-tight compartments generally accepted by the socalled Sanātanists. This is clearly borne out in the following verse of Uttarādhyayanasūtra (XXV):
"कम्मुणा बंभणो होइ कम्मुणा होइ खत्तिओ ।
as o ur s t u 11 33 11" In this very canon (XXV, 19-29, 31-32.) we find the word Māhana used in the sense of Bambhana. From the characteristics of Māhana mentioned there, 28 we learn that a person is so called, in case he leads a very very high standard of life.29 Even Lord Mahāvīra iş himself so addressed
He has practically expressed the same opinion in his commentary (p. 28) to Avaśyakasūtra. In this connection it may be noted that the jāti.jungitas such as Mātanga, Kokila,Baruda, Sūcika, and Chimpa and others are considered as asprsya by Siddhasena Sūri in his commentary (p. 230) to Pravacanasāroddhāra (v. 791) The author of Niśīthacūrņi,
too, seems to hold the same opinion. 28. See also ch. xii, v. 14. 29. In Kalpasūtra, we notice the word Māhana, used rather in a
deteriorated sense; for, there, it implies a family unfit to be blessed with the birth of a Tirthankara, a Cakravartin, a Baladeva or a Vasudeva. From this it may bc inferred that by the time of Bhadrabāhusvāmin, the Māhanas had lost their original position and reputation, probably because they had given up the high ideals. Perhaps this is the reason why the word Dhijjāia, an apabhrasta form of Dvijātika, according to P. Bechardas is explained as Dhig-jātiya, in the commentary to Āvasyakasūtra.