Studies in Jainology Prakrit Literature and Languages

Author(s): B K Khadabadi
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 99

Studies in Sainology, Prakrit
of living beings etc. The Prasna-vyākarana-sutra, the sixth anga (book) of the Ardhamāgadhi Canon, enumerates such sixty synonyms of ahimsā."
Jaina tradition, which is history in its core, unanimously holds that Rsabhadeva, the first Tirthankara (Ford Maker), was the first to preach the Doctrine of Ahimsā and train the people in practising it by setting before them higher values of life, discouraging hunting etc. and cncouraging agriculture etc." Prince Bahubali, his illustrious son, turned a sage rather than be a cause of violence to the soldiers of his brother's as well as his own army and also to his brother himself - the greedy monarch Bharata." Prince Neminatha's (cousin of Krişna), who later became the 22nd Tirthankara, practising of the great virtue of ahimsā, perhirps has no parallel in human history - that he instantly left the marriage pendal at his father-in-law's palace court-yard, took himself to ascetic life in order to avoid causing himsā to the numerous wailing animals and birds, kept in confinement and to be slaughtered and served at his own wedding feast the very next day.
Moreover, from the very beginning and through centuries down to this day, the Jainācāryas have been cloquently explaining through their sermons the importance of practising this ethico-social virtue of non-violence to the laity and also guiding them properly. Jaina story literature is replete with numerous illustrations of the significance of the universally benevolent virtue of non-violence and the practice of showing compassion to the suffering ones and of extending protection to all living beings, not only on the part of monks but also the lay community? The Jaina treatises on the Code of Conduct for Householders lay down several rules for the due observance of the minor vow of non-violence. The householders are expected to abstain from eating even a number of fruits, flowers, vegetables, mushrooms etc. (designated as abhaksyas and ananta-kāyas) which contain innumerable minute living beings. Even to this day, the majority of the Jaina householders abide by such rules and injunctions in their daily life; and hence the whole