Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 471

446
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
[Ch. Vit
the last sprinkling (secanaka) elephant, the last Mahāśilākantaka Sangrāma and the last Tīrthanlara (i. e. Gaśāla himself) in the Avasar pini kāla. In addition to these the Ajīvika leader preached the doctrine of four potables (drinks) and four Impotables (condrinks) (cattāri pāņagāiṁ and cattāri apāņagāim). They are as follows :
Four Drinks—(1) Goputthae (Goprotha=cow's urine), (2) Hatthamaddiyae (hastamarditaka = water soiled by hand), (3) Atavatattae (āta patapta=drink heated by the sunshine) and (4) Silāva. bbhatthae (Silāprabhrasta=water dripped from a rock). Four non-drinks
(1) Thālapānaya (sthālapānaka = water kept in wares like earthen jars etc., these cold and wet earthen pots are touched by hands, the water kept there-in is not drunk). (2) Tayāpānaya (Tvak.pānaka - juice squeezed out of unripe mango by putting it into the mouth, or out of the edible fruit of jujubee or young shoots of darbha grass, since its juice is not drunk), (3) Simbalipānaya (Simbalipānaka = water or juice chewed from the raw pulses under teeth, such as Kalāya, Munga, etc.) and (4) Suddhapāņaya (Suddhapānaka= the touch of limbs of dying monk by Pūrņıbhadra and Maņibhadra with their cold and wet hands).
It is explained that if the dying monk on the last night of his full six months' penance, experiences (or submits to) the touch of the cold and wet hands of these two gods on his limbs, he binds Karma which turns into deadly poison, if he does not pay attention to it, fire gets generated in his body and it gets consumed by this fire, and he attains perfection and puts an end to all miseries.
Initiation
The Bhs throws some light upon the initiation of the Ājivika monk by refering to the process of initiation, the observance of chastity, study and acquired knowledge of Gośāla in one of his former births as described by himself.8
1 Digha-Nikāya (Sumangalavilā sini 162, translated in Uvā.
sagadasão, appendix II, p. 21. • Anguttara Nikāya, IV. 3 BhS, 15, 1, 550.