Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 317

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA (Ch. V Hunting
The Bhs reveals that there was a class of professional hunters who lived on by the occupation of hunting deer and other games and probably selling their flesh also, as it is implied by the denotation of the word 'miyavittie'. Method of hunting
The text makes incidental references to two methods of hunting deer-the one by trapping them with the net? (küdapāsa) and the other by shooting them with the arrow (usum nisirai) in different hunting grounds, such as, hills, forests, etc.' Fowling
An indirect reference has been made to the fowling of birds in the Bhs where it is stated that some man holds the bow, ta kes the position, draws the arrow up to the ear and shoots it in the sky and kills beings in the air, etc. Fishery
The BKS shows that fishery, another occupation, was carried on by a certain section of the population of its society to earn their means of living, as it is evidenced by the fact of the art of making net and catching fish in the river by the people in times of economic crisis for the sustenance of their lives. The text makes an incidental reference to the art of manufacturing net thus :
"One net in which knots are tied in due order which are again gradually tied one after another without any gap and mutually tied with one another by its length, breadth and heaviness (weight), remains in a complete whole by the length, breadth and heaviness due to the tying of one knot with the other......... and thus one full production is made by the completion of knotting (Samudāya-racanā)..""
"Like the knotted net, thousands of particles of ‘āyuş karma' of many beings bound in many lakhs of births remain".
i Bhs, 1, 8, 65.
2.8 16, 1, 8, 67.
4_5 Ib, 5, 3, 183.