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THE INDIAN SECT OF THE JAINAS, by Dr. J. G. B?HLER.

Appendix:--Epigraphic testimony to the continuity of the Jaina tradition

SKETCH OF JAINA MYTHOLOGY, by J. BURGESS.

THE INDIAN SECT OF THE JAINAS.

The characteristic feature of this religion is its claim to universality, which it holds in common with Buddhism, and in opposition to Brahmanism. It also declares its object to be to lead all men to salvation, and to open its arms--not only to the noble Aryan, but also to the low-born ??dra and even to the alien, deeply despised in India, the Mlechcha. As their doctrine, like Buddha's, is originally a philosophical ethical system intended for ascetics, the disciples, like the Buddhists, are, divided into ecclesiastics and laity. At the head stands an order of ascetics, originally Nirgrantha "they, who are freed from all bands," now usually called Yatis--"Ascetics", or S?dhus--"Holy", which, among the ?vet?mbara also admits women, and under them the general community of the Up?saka "the Worshippers", or the ?r?vaka, "the hearers".

The Jaina says further, however, that there was more than one Jina. Four and twenty have, at long intervals, appeared and have again and again restored to their original purity the doctrines darkened by evil influences. They all spring from noble, warlike tribes. Only in such, not among the low Br?hma?s, can a Jina see the light of the world. The first Jina ?i?shabha,--more than 100 billion oceans of years ago,--periods of unimaginable length, --was born as the son of a king of Ayodhy? and lived eight million four hundred thousand years. The intervals between his successors and the durations of their lives became shorter and shorter. Between the twenty third, P?r?va and the twenty fourth Vardham?na, were only 250 years, and the age of the latter is given as only seventy-two years. He appeared, according to some, in the last half of the sixth century, according to others in the first half of the fifth century B.C. He is of course the true, historical prophet of the Jainas and it is in his doctrine, that the Jainas should believe. The dating back of the origin of the Jaina religion again, agrees with the pretensions of the Buddhists, who recognise twenty-five Buddhas who taught the same system one after the other. Even with Brahmanism, it seems to be in some distant manner connected, for the latter teaches in its cosmogony, the successive appearance of Demiurges, and wise men--the fourteen Manus, who, at various periods helped to complete the work of creation and proclaimed the Brahmanical law. These Brahmanical ideas may possibly have given rise to the doctrines of the twenty-five Buddhas and twenty-four Jinas, which, certainly, are later additions in both systems.

The undoubted and absolutely correct comprehension of the nine truths which the Jina gives expression to, or of the philosophical system which the Jina taught, represents the second Jewel--the true Knowledge. Its principal features are shortly as follows.

The third jewel, the right Walk which the Jaina ethics contains, has its kernel in the five great oaths which the Jaina ascetic takes on his entrance into the order. He promises, just as the Br?hma? penitent, and almost in the same words, not to hurt, not to speak untruth, to appropriate nothing to himself without permission, to preserve chastity, and to practice self-sacrifice. The contents of these simple rules become most extraordinarily extended on the part of the Jainas by the insertion of five clauses, in each of which are three separate active instruments of sin, in special relation to thoughts, words, and deeds. Thus, concerning the oath not to hurt, on which the Jaina lays the greatest emphasis: it includes not only the intentional killing or hurting of living beings, plants, or the souls existing in dead matter, it requires also the utmost carefulness in the whole manner of life, in all movements, a watchfulness over all functions of the body by which anything living might be hurt. It demands finally strict watch over the heart and tongue, and the avoidance of all thoughts and words which might lead to dispute and quarrel and thereby to harm. In like manner the rule of sacrifice means not only that the ascetic has no house or possessions, it teaches also that a complete unconcern toward agreeable and disagreeable impressions is necessary, as also the sacrifice of every attachment to anything living or dead.

From these general rules follow numerous special ones, regarding the life of the disciple of Jina. The duty of sacrifice forces him, on entrance into the order, to give up his possessions and wander homeless in strange lands, alms-vessel in hand, and, if no other duty interferes, never to stay longer than one night in the same place. The rule of wounding nothing means that he must carry three articles with him, a straining cloth, for his drinking water, a broom, and a veil before his mouth, in order to avoid killing insects. It also commands him to avoid all cleansing and washing, and to rest in the four months of the rainy season, in which animal and plant life displays itself most abundantly. In order to practice asceticism, it is the rule to make this time of rest a period of strictest fasts, most diligent study of the holy writings, and deepest meditation. This duty also necessitates the ascetic to pluck out in the most painful manner his hair which, according to oriental custom, he must do away with at his consecration--a peculiar custom of the Jainas, which is not found among other penitents of India.

Like the five great vows, most of the special directions for the discipline of the Jain ascetic are copies, and often exaggerated copies, of the Br?hmanic rules for penitents. The outward marks of the order closely resemble those of the Sanny?sin. The life of wandering during eight months and the rest during the rainy season agree exactly; and in many other points, for example in the use of confession, they agree with the Buddhists. They agree with Br?hma?s alone in ascetic self-torture, which Buddhism rejects; and specially characteristic is the fact that ancient Br?hmanism recommends starvation to its penitents as beneficial.

The doctrine of the right way for the Jaina laity differs from that for the ascetics. In place of the five great vows appear mere echoes. He vows to avoid only serious injury to living beings, i.e. men and animals; only the grosser forms of untruth--direct lies; only the most flagrant forms of taking, what is not given, that is, theft and robbery. In place of the oath of chastity there is that of conjugal fidelity. In place of that of self-denial, the promise is not greedily to accumulate possessions and to be contented. To these copies are added seven other vows, the miscellaneous contents of which correspond to the special directions for the discipline of ascetics. Their object is, partly to bring the outward life of the laity into accordance with the Jaina teaching, especially with regard to the protection of living creatures from harm, and partly to point the heart to the highest goal. Some contain prohibitions against certain drinks, such as spirits; or meats, such as flesh, fresh butter, honey, which cannot be enjoyed without breaking the vow of preservation of animal life. Others limit the choice of businesses which the laity may enter; for example, agriculture is forbidden, as it involves the tearing up of the ground and the death of many animals, as Br?hmanism also holds. Others have to do with mercy and charitableness, with the preserving of inward peace, or with the necessity of neither clinging too much to life and its joys nor longing for death as the end of suffering. To the laity, however, voluntary starvation is also recommended as meritorious. These directions resemble in many points the Buddhist directions for the laity, and indeed are often identical with regard to the language used. Much is however specially in accordance with Br?hmanic doctrines. In practical life Jainism makes of its laity earnest men who exhibit a stronger trait of resignation than other Indians and excel in an exceptional willingness to sacrifice anything for their religion. It makes them also fanatics for the protection of animal life. Wherever they gain influence, there is an end of bloody sacrifices and of slaughtering and killing the larger animals.

The resemblance between the Jainas and the Buddhists, which I have had so often cause to bring forward, suggests the question, whether they are to be regarded as a branch of the latter, or whether they resemble the Buddhists merely because, as their tradition asserts, they sprang from the same period and the same religious movement in opposition to Br?hmanism. This question, was formerly, and is still sometimes, answered in agreement with the first theory, pointing out the undoubted defects in it, to justify the rejection of the Jaina tradition, and even declaring it to be a late and intentional fabrication. In spite of this the second explanation is the right one, because the Buddhists themselves confirm the statements of the Jainas about their prophet. Old historical traditions and inscriptions prove the independent existence of the sect of the Jainas even during the first five centuries after Buddha's death, and among the inscriptions are some which clear the Jaina tradition not only from the suspicion of fraud but bear powerful witness to its honesty.

The oldest canonical books of the Jaina, apart from some mythological additions and evident exaggerations, contain the following important notes on the life of their last prophet. Vardham?na was the younger son of Siddh?rtha a nobleman who belonged to the Kshatriya race, called in Sanskrit J??ti or J??ta, in Prakrit N?ya, and, according to the old custom of the Indian warrior caste, bore the name of a Br?hmanic family the K??yapa. His mother, who was called Tri?al?, belonged to the family of the governors of Videha. Siddh?rtha's residence was Ku??apura, the Basukund of to-day, a suburb of the wealthy town of Vai??l?, the modern Besarh, in Videha or Tirhut. Siddh?rtha was son-in-law to the king of Vai??l?. Thirty years, it seems, Vardham?na led a worldly life in his parents' house. He married, and his wife Ya?od? bore him a daughter Anojj?, who was married to a noble of the name of Jam?li, and in her turn had a daughter. In his thirty-first year his parents died. As they were followers of P?r?va the twenty-third Jina, they chose, according to the custom of the Jainas, the death of the wise by starvation. Immediately after this Vardham?na determined to renounce the world. He got permission to take this step from his elder brother Nandivardhana, and the ruler of his land divided his possessions and became a homeless ascetic. He wandered more than twelve years, only resting during the rainy season, in the lands of the L??ha, in Vajjabh?mi and Subbhabh?mi, the R?rh of to-day in Bengal, and learned to bear with equanimity great hardships and cruel ill treatment at the hands of the inhabitants of those districts. Besides these he imposed upon himself the severest mortifications; after the first year he discarded clothes and devoted himself to the deepest meditation. In the thirteenth year of this wandering life he believed he had attained to the highest knowledge and to the dignity of a holy one. He then appeared as a prophet, taught the Nirgrantha doctrine, a modification of the religion of P?r?va, and organised the order of the Nirgrantha ascetics. From that time he bore the name of the venerable ascetic Mah?v?ra. His career as a teacher lasted not quite thirty years, during which he travelled about, as formerly, all over the country, except during the rainy seasons. He won for himself numerous followers, both of the clergy and the lay class, among whom, however, in the fourteenth year of his period of teaching, a split arose--caused by his son-in-law Jam?li.

The extent of his sphere of influence almost corresponds with that of the kingdoms of Sr?vast? or Kosala, Vidcha, Magadha, and A?ga,--the modern Oudh, and the provinces of Tirhut and Bih?r in Western Bengal. Very frequently he spent the rainy season in his native place Vai??l? and in R?jag?iha. Among his contemporaries were, a rival teacher Gos?la the son of Ma?khali--whom he defeated in a dispute, the King of Videha--Bhambhas?ra or Bibbhis?ra called Sre?ika, and his sons Abhayakum?ra and the parricide Aj?ta?atru or K??ika, who protected him or accepted his doctrine, and also the nobles of the Lichchhavi and Mallaki races. The town of P?p? or P?v?, the modern Padraona is given as the place of his death, where he dwelt during the rainy season of the last year of his life, in the house of the scribe of king Hastip?la. Immediately after his death, a second split took place in his community.

On consideration of this information, it immediately strikes one, that the scene of Vardham?na's activity is laid in the same part of India as Buddha laboured in, and that several of the personalities which play a part in the history of Buddha also appear in the Jaina legend. It is through the kingdoms of Kosala, Videha and Magadha, that Buddha is said to have wandered preaching, and their capitals ?r?vast? and R?jag?iha are just the places named, where he founded the largest communities. It is also told of the inhabitants of Vai??l? that many turned to his doctrine. Many legends are told of his intercourse and friendship with Bimbis?ra or ?re?ika, king of Videha, also of the murder of the latter by his son Aj?ta?atru, who, tortured with remorse, afterwards approached Buddha; mention is also made of his brother Abhayakum?ra, likewise Makkhali Gos?la is mentioned among Buddha's opponents and rivals. It is thus clear that the oldest Jaina legend makes Vardham?na a fellow countryman and contemporary of Buddha, and search might be suggested in the writings of the Buddhists for confirmation of these assumptions. Such indeed are to be found in no small number.

Besides these rules, which perfectly agree with one another, there are still two doctrines of the Niga??ha to be referred to which seem to, or really do, contradict the Jainas; namely, it is stated that N?taputta demanded from his disciples the taking of four, not as in Vardham?na's case, of five great vows. Although this difficulty may seem very important at first glance, it is, however, set aside by an oft repeated assertion in the Jaina works. They repeatedly say that P?r?va, the twenty-third Jina only recognised four vows, and Vardham?na added the fifth. The Buddhists have therefore handed down a dogma which Jainism recognises. The question is merely whether they or the Jainas are the more to be trusted. If the latter, and it is accepted that Vardham?na was merely the reformer of an old religion, then the Buddhists must be taxed with an easily possible confusion between the earlier and later teachers. If, on the other hand, the Jaina accounts of their twenty-third prophet are regarded as mythical, and Vardham?na is looked upon as the true founder of the sect,--then the doctrine of the four vows must be ascribed to the latter, and we must accept as a fact that he had changed his views on this point. In any case, however, the Buddhist statement speaks for, rather than against, the identity of Niga??ha with Jina.

Vardham?na's system, on the other hand, is quite irreconcilable with N?taputta's assertion that virtue as well as sin, happiness as well as unhappiness is unalterably fixed for men by fate, and nothing in their destiny can be altered by the carrying out of the holy law. It is, however, just as irreconcilable with the other Buddhist accounts of the teaching of their opponent; because it is absolutely unimaginable, that the same man, who lays vows upon his followers, the object of which is to avoid sin, could nevertheless make virtue and sin purely dependent upon the disposition of fate, and preach the uselessness of carrying out the law. The accusation that N?taputta embraced fatalism must therefore be regarded as an invention and an outcome of sect hatred as well as of the wish to throw discredit on their opponents.

The harmony between the Buddhist and Jaina tradition, as to the person of the head of the Nirgrantha is meanwhile imperfect. It is disturbed by the description of N?taputta as a member of the Br?hmanic sect of the ?gnive?y?yana, whilst Vardham?na belonged to the K??yapa. The point is however so insignificant, that an error on the part of the Buddhists is easily possible. It is quite to be understood that perfect exactness is not to be expected among the Buddhists or any other sect in describing the person of a hated enemy. Enmity and scorn, always present, forbid that. The most that one can expect is that the majority and most important of the facts given may agree.

This condition is undoubtedly fulfilled in the case on hand. It cannot, therefore be denied, that, in spite of this difference, in spite also of the absurdity of one article of the creed ascribed to him, Vardham?na J??tiputra, the founder of the Nirgrantha--or Jaina community is none other than Buddha's rival. From Buddhist accounts in their canonical works as well as in other books, it may be seen that this rival was a dangerous and influential one, and that even in Buddha's time his teaching had spread considerably. Their legends about conversions from other sects very often make mention of Nirgrantha sectarians, whom Buddha's teaching or that of his disciples had alienated from their faith. Also they say in their descriptions of other rivals of Buddha, that these, in order to gain esteem, copied the Nirgrantha and went unclothed, or that they were looked upon by the people as Nirgrantha holy ones, because they happened to have lost their clothes. Such expressions would be inexplicable if Vardham?na's community had not become of great importance.

None of these works can indeed be looked upon as a truly historical source. There are, even in those paragraphs which treat of the oldest history after Buddha's death, proofs enough that they simply hand down a faulty historical tradition. In spite of this, their statements on the Nirgrantha, cannot be denied a certain weight, because they are closely connected on the one side with the Buddhist canon, and on the other they agree with the indisputable sources of history, which relate to a slightly later period.

On the other hand we possess two documents from the middle of the next century which prove that they advanced into south-eastern India as far as Kali?ga. These are the inscriptions at Kha??agiri in Orissa, of the great King Kh?ravela and his first wife, who governed the east coast of India from the year 152 to 165 of the Maurya era that is, in the first half of second century B.C.

The larger inscription, unfortunately very much disfigured, contains an account of the life of Kh?ravela from his childhood till the thirteenth year of his reign. It begins with an appeal to the Arhat and Siddha, which corresponds to the beginning of the five-fold form of homage still used among the Jainas, and mentions the building of temples in honour of the Arhat as well as an image of the first Jina, which was taken away by a hostile king. The second and smaller inscription asserts that Kh?ravela's wife caused a cave to be prepared for the ascetics of Kalinga, "who believed on the Arhat."

From a somewhat later period, as the characters show, from the first century B.C. comes a dedicatory inscription which has been found far to the west of the original home of the Jainas, in Mathur? on the Jamn?. It tells of the erection of a small temple in honour of the Arhat Vardham?na, also of the dedication of seats for the teachers, a cistern, and a stone table. The little temple, it says, stood beside the temple of the guild of tradesmen, and this remark proves, that Mathur?, which, according to the tradition of the Jainas, was one of the chief scats of their religion, possessed a community of Jainas even before the time of this inscription.

Unfortunately the testimony to the ancient history of the Jainas, so far as made known by means of inscriptions, terminates here. Interesting as it would be to follow the traces of their communities in the later inscriptions, which become so numerous from the fifth century A.D. onwards and in the description of his travels by Hiuen Tsiang, who found them spread through the whole of India and even beyond its boundaries, it would be apart from our purpose. The documents quoted suffice, however, to confirm the assertion that during the first five centuries after Buddha's death both the statements of Buddhist tradition and real historical sources give evidence to the existence of the Jainas as an important religious community independent of Buddhism, and that there are among the historical sources some which entirely clear away the suspicion that the tradition of the Jainas themselves is intentionally falsified.

The advantage gained for Indian history from the conclusion that Jainism and Buddhism are two contemporary sects--having arisen in the same district,--is no small one. First, this conclusion shows that the religious movement of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in eastern India must have been a profound one. If not only one, but certainly two, and perhaps more reformers, appeared at the same time, preaching teachers, who opposed the existing circumstances in the same manner, and each of whom gained no small number of followers for their doctrines, the desire to overthrow the Brahmanical order of things must have been generally and deeply felt. This conclusion shows then that the transformation of the religious life in India was not merely the work of a religious community. Many strove to attain this object although separated from one another. It is now recognisable, though preliminarily, in one point only, that the religious history of India from the fifth century B.C. to the eighth or ninth A.D. was not made up of the fight between Brahmanism and Buddhism alone. This conclusion allows us, lastly, to hope that the thorough investigation of the oldest writings of the Jainas and their relations with Buddhism on the one hand and with Brahmanism on the other will afford many important ways of access to a more exact knowledge concerning the religious ideas which prevailed in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., and to the establishment of the boundaries of originality between the different systems.

The formulae of the inscriptions are almost universally the same. First comes the date, then follows the name of a reverend teacher, next, the mention of the school and the subdivision of it to which he belonged. Then the persons, who dedicated the statues are named , and who belonged to the community of the said teacher. The description of the gift forms the conclusion. The dialect of the inscriptions shows that curious mixture of Sansk??t and Pr?k??t which is found in almost all documents of the Indo-Skythian kings, and whichas Dr. Hoernle was the first to recognise--was one of the literary languages of northern and northwestern India during the first centuries before and after the commencement of our era.

and the translation:--

which I translate--

and the translation will be,--

"Success! Adoration to the Arhat Mah?vir?, the destroyer of the gods. In the year of king V?sudeva, 98, in the month 4 of the rainy season, on the day 11--on the above date ... of the chief of the school Aryya-Devadata out of the school of the Aryya-Udehik?ya , out of the Parih?saka line , out of the Ponapatrik? branch ."

Inscriptions:--

Inscriptions:--

Inscriptions:--

Inscriptions:--

The resemblance of most of these names is so complete that no explanation is necessary.

JAINA MYTHOLOGY.

To each of these is allotted twenty four past, present and future At?ts or Jinas,--making in all 720 of this class, for which they have invented names: but they are only names.

Other legends account for the attachment of each pair of ??sanadevat?s to their respective Jinas.

The ?vet?mbaras and Digambaras agree generally in the details respecting the different T?rthakaras; but, from information furnished from Maisur, they seem to differ as to the names of the Yakshi?is attached to the several T?rthakaras, except the first and last two; they differ also in the names of several of the Jinas of the past and the future aeons. The Digambaras enlist most of the sixteen Vidy?devis or goddesses of knowledge among the Yakshi??s, whilst the other sect include scarcely a third of them.

These Vidy?dev?s, as given by Hemachandra, are-- Rohi??; Praj?apt?; Vajras?i?khal?; Kuli??nku?c?--probably the Anku?a-Yaksh? of the ?vet?mb?ra fourteenth Jina; Chakre?var?; Naradatt? or Purushadatt?; K?li or K?l?k?; Mah?k?l?; Gaur?; G?ndh?r?; Sarv?stramah?jv?l?; M?nav?; Vairo?y?; Achchhupt?; M?nas?; and Mah?m?nasik?.

All the Jinas are ascribed to the Ikshv?ku family except the twentieth Munisuvrata and twenty-second Nemin?tha, who were of the Hariva??a race.

For sake of brevity the following particulars for each Arhat are given below in serial order viz.:--

Names of father and mother.

Complexion.

Height; and

Age.

D?ksha-vriksha or Bodhi tree.

Yaksha and Yakshi??, or attendant spirits.

First Ganadhara or leading disciple, and first ?ry? or leader of the female converts.

But the gods are divided into four classes, and each class into several orders: the four classes are:--

The Kalpabhavas again are subdivided into twelve genera who live in the Kalpas after which they are named; viz,--

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