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6. TAGASTILAKA AS A RELIGIOUS ROMANCE
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Similarly, the sarcastic verse, attributed in our work to an ox addressing a priest about to sacrifice him, in the story related by Yaśod in the dialogue with his mother,' has its counterpart in Arnobius VII. 9 in the elaborate speech imagined to be addressed to Jupiter by an ox on the iniquity of sacrificing him to appease the fury of the gods. But the Jaina view of ahińsā is far more comprehensive than the Christian objection to animal sacrifices, involving as it does complete abstinence from all kinds of flesh food. Arnobius, in fact, deeply regrets the necessity that compels men to kill animals for food, and we have what we may call his confession on the subject: "We half-savage men, nay rather ............, we Savages, whom unhappy necessity and bad habit have trained to take these as food, are sometimes moved with pity for them .............
The condemnation of animal food and blood-shedding sacrifices is an important adjunct of the Jaina doctrine of ahimsā, and Somadeva's Yasastilaka contains many interesting data on this aspect of Jainism. Buddhism was equally opposed to sacrifices, but the Jaina prohibition of animal food is far stricter than that of the Buddhists; and Somadeva, in fact, severely criticizes the latter for eating flesh®, and similar criticism occurs also in the Tamil Jaina poem Neelakesi. It is noteworthy that it is in certain early Greeks and Jewish and Jewish-Christiano sects
1 Quoted in Chap. XII. 2 Arnobius (op. cit.) VII. 4. 3 See Chap. XIII. 4 Jaina Antiquary, Vol. VII, p. 3. 5 The early Pythagoreang do not seem to have been strict in abstinence from animal
flesh. It is said that Pythagoras himself did not abstain from animal flesh in general, but only from that of the ploughing ox and the ram, although he is said to have refused to sacrifice on any but the oldest altar, that of Apollo the Father, where only bloodloss sacrifices were allowed. It was the later Pythagoreans (fourth century B. c.), called also Akousmatios, who practised vegetarianism and complete abstinence from meat, fish, wine eto., and did not participate in the usual sacrifices, Diogenes Laertius, Book VIII; Burnet: Barly Greek Philosophy, p. 93; Zeller: Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, p. 72. Still later, the Pythagorean rule of life embodying these principles was again preached by Apollonius of Tyana, as stated above, Empedoolog of Akragas (fifth century B. c. ), who as a religious teacher was guided by Pythagorean influence, also advocated abstinence from animal food and blood offerings, which, as we have seen, were replaced by sacrificial cakos in animal form. Burnet (op cit.), p. 250; Zeller, p. 58. The Essenes were a pre-Christian Jewish sect of Syria and Palestine, and followed, according to the historian Josephus, the Pythagorean mode of life, a significant phrase. Moore: Judaism, Vol. I, p. 457. They were communists, and the initiate, before he was allowed to share the common meal, was required to take an oath, among other things, "never to injure anyone, either of his own accord or under compulsion". The Essenog included the Therapeutae, who were to be found in Egypt,
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