A History of Indian Philosophy Part 26

[Footnote 3: See [email protected]'s commentary on Jainism in [email protected]@ddars'anasamuccaya_.]

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preserved a list of the succession of their teachers from Mahavira (_sthaviravali, [email protected]@tavali, gurvavali_) and also many legends about them such as those in the _Kalpasutra_, the [email protected]@ta-parvan_ of Hemacandra, etc.

The Canonical and other Literature of the Jains.

According to the Jains there were originally two kinds of sacred books, the fourteen Purvas and the eleven [email protected] The Purvas continued to be transmitted for some time but were gradually lost. The works known as the eleven [email protected] are now the oldest parts of the existing Jain canon. The names of these are _acara, [email protected], Sthana, Samavaya Bhagavati, Jnatadharmakathas, Upasakadas'as, [email protected]'as Anuttaraupapatikadas'as, [email protected], Vipaka_. In addition to these there are the twelve [email protected]_ [Footnote ref 1], the ten [email protected]_ [Footnote ref 2], six _Chedasutras_ [Footnote ref 3], _Nandi_ and _Anuyogadvara_ and four _Mulasutras_ (_Uttaradhyayana, avas'yaka, Das'avaikalika_, and [email protected]@daniryukti_). The Digambaras however a.s.sert that these original works have all been lost, and that the present works which pa.s.s by the old names are spurious. The original language of these according to the Jains was Ardhamagadhi, but these suffered attempts at modernization and it is best to call the language of the sacred texts Jaina Prakrit and that of the later works Jaina [email protected]@tri. A large literature of glosses and commentaries has grown up round the sacred texts. And besides these, the Jains possess separate works, which contain systematic expositions of their faith in Prakrit and Sanskrit.

Many commentaries have also been written upon these independent treatises. One of the oldest of these treatises is Umasvati's _Tattvarthadhigamasutra_(1-85 A.D.). Some of the most important later Jaina works on which this chapter is based are [email protected][email protected]_, Jaina _Tarkavarttika_, with the commentary of S'antyacaryya, [email protected]_ of Nemicandra (1150 A.D.), _Syadvadamanjari_ of [email protected] (1292 A.D.), _Nyayavatara_ of Siddhasena Divakara (533 A.D.), [email protected]@rtti_ of Anantaviryya (1039 A.D.), [email protected]@da_ of Prabhacandra

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[Footnote 1: _Aupapatika, Raj.a.pras'niya, Jivabhigama, Prajnapana, Jambudvipaprajnapti, Candraprajnapti, Suryaprajnapti, Nirayavali, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]@[email protected]@sas_.]

[Footnote 2: [email protected][email protected], [email protected], aturapratyakhyana, Bhaktaparijna, [email protected], [email protected]@davija, Devendrastava, [email protected], Mahapratyakhyana, Virastava_.]

[Footnote 3: _Nis'itha, Mahanis'itha, Vyavahara, Das'as'rutaskandha, [email protected], Pancakalpa_.]

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(825 A.D.), _Yogas'astra_ of Hemacandra (1088-1172 A.D.), and [email protected]@mkara_ of Deva Suri (1086-1169 A.D.).

I am indebted for these dates to [email protected]@na's _Indian Logic_.

It may here be mentioned that the Jains also possess a secular literature of their own in poetry and prose, both Sanskrit and Prakrit. There are also many moral tales (e.g. _Samaraicca-kaha, Upamitabhavaprapanca-katha_ in Prakrit, and the _Yas'astilaka_ of Somadeva and Dhanapala's _Tilakamanjari_); Jaina Sanskrit poems both in the [email protected] and Kavya style and hymns in Prakrit and Sanskrit are also very numerous. There are also many Jaina dramas. The Jaina authors have also contributed many works, original treatises as well as commentaries, to the scientific literature of India in its various branches: grammar, biography, metrics, poetics, philosophy, etc. The contributions of the Jains to logic deserve special notice [Footnote ref 1].

Some General Characteristics of the Jains.

The Jains exist only in India and their number is a little less than a million and a half. The Digambaras are found chiefly in Southern India but also in the North, in the North-western provinces, Eastern Rajputana and the Punjab. The head-quarters of the S'vetambaras are in Gujarat and Western Rajputana, but they are to be found also all over Northern and Central India.

The outfit of a monk, as Jacobi describes it, is restricted to bare necessaries, and these he must beg--clothes, a blanket, an alms-bowl, a stick, a broom to sweep the ground, a piece of cloth to cover his mouth when speaking lest insects should enter it [Footnote ref 2]. The outfit of nuns is the same except that they have additional clothes. The Digambaras have a similar outfit, but keep no clothes, use brooms of peac.o.c.k's feathers or hairs of the tail of a cow (_camara_) [Footnote ref 3]. The monks shave the head or remove the hair by plucking it out.

The latter method of getting rid of the hair is to be preferred, and is regarded sometimes as an essential rite. The duties of monks are very hard. They should sleep only three hours and spend the rest of the time in repenting of and expiating sins, meditating, studying, begging alms (in the afternoon), and careful inspection of their clothes and other things for the removal of insects. The laymen should try to approach the ideal of conduct of the monks

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[Footnote 1: See Jacobi's article on Jainism. _E.R.E._]

[Footnote 2: See Jacobi, _loc. cat._]

[Footnote 3: See [email protected]@ddars'anasamuccaya_, chapter IV.]

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by taking upon themselves particular vows, and the monks are required to deliver sermons and explain the sacred texts in the upas'rayas (separate buildings for monks like the Buddhist viharas). The principle of extreme carefulness not to destroy any living being has been in monastic life carried out to its very last consequences, and has shaped the conduct of the laity in a great measure. No layman will intentionally kill any living being, not even an insect, however troublesome. He will remove it carefully without hurting it. The principle of not hurting any living being thus bars them from many professions such as agriculture, etc., and has thrust them into commerce [Footnote ref 1].

Life of Mahavira.

Mahavira, the last prophet of the Jains, was a [email protected] of the Jnata clan and a native of Vais'ali (modern Besarh, 27 miles north of Patna). He was the second son of Siddhartha and Tris'ala.

The S'vetambaras maintain that the embryo of the [email protected] which first entered the womb of the Brahmin lady Devananda was then transferred to the womb of Tris'ala. This story the Digambaras do not believe as we have already seen. His parents were the wors.h.i.+ppers of Pars'va and gave him the name Varddhamana (Vira or Mahavira). He married Yas'oda and had a daughter by her. In his thirtieth year his parents died and with the permission of his brother Nandivardhana he became a monk. After twelve years of self-mortification and meditation he attained omniscience (_kevala_, cf. _bodhi_ of the Buddhists). He lived to preach for forty-two years more, and attained [email protected] (emanc.i.p.ation) some years before Buddha in about 480 B.C. [Footnote ref 2].

The Fundamental Ideas of Jaina Ontology.

A thing (such as clay) is seen to a.s.sume various shapes and to undergo diverse changes (such as the form of a jug, or pan, etc.), and we have seen that the Chandogya [email protected] held that since in all changes the clay-matter remained permanent, that alone was true, whereas the changes of form and state were but appearances, the nature of which cannot be rationally

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[Footnote 1: See Jacobi's article on Jainism, _E. R.E._]

[Footnote 2: See h.o.e.rnle's translation of _Uvasagadasao_, Jacobi, _loc.

cit_., and h.o.e.rnle's article on the ajivakas, _E. R.E._ The S'vetambaras, however, say that this date was 527 B.C. and the Digambaras place it eighteen years later.]

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demonstrated or explained. The unchangeable substance (e.g.

the clay-matter) alone is true, and the changing forms are mere illusions of the senses, mere objects of name (_nama-rupa_) [Footnote ref 1]. What we call tangibility, visibility, or other sense-qualities, have no real existence, for they are always changing, and are like mere phantoms of which no conception can be made by the light of reason.

The Buddhists hold that changing qualities can alone be perceived and that there is no unchanging substance behind them.

What we perceive as clay is but some specific quality, what we perceive as jug is also some quality. Apart from these qualities we do not perceive any qualitiless substance, which the [email protected] regard as permanent and unchangeable. The permanent and unchangeable substance is thus a mere fiction of ignorance, as there are only the pa.s.sing collocations of qualities. Qualities do not imply that there are substances to which they adhere, for the so-called pure substance does not exist, as it can neither be perceived by the senses nor inferred. There are only the momentary pa.s.sing qualities. We should regard each change of quality as a new existence.

The Jains we know were the contemporaries of Buddha and possibly of some of the [email protected] too, and they had also a solution to offer. They held that it was not true that substance alone was true and qualities were mere false and illusory appearances.

Further it was not true as the Buddhists said that there was no permanent substance but merely the change of pa.s.sing qualities, for both these represent two extreme views and are contrary to experience. Both of them, however, contain some elements of truth but not the whole truth as given in experience. Experience shows that in all changes there are three elements: (1) that some collocations of qualities appear to remain unchanged; (2) that some new qualities are generated; (3) that some old qualities are destroyed. It is true that qualities of things are changing every minute, but all qualities are not changing. Thus when a jug is made, it means that the clay-lump has been destroyed, a jug has been generated and the clay is permanent, i.e. all production means that some old qualities have been lost, some new ones brought in, and there is some part in it which is permanent The clay has become lost in some form, has generated itself in another, and remained permanent in still

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[Footnote 1: See Chandogya, VI. 1.]

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another form. It is by virtue of these unchanged qualities that a thing is said to be permanent though undergoing change. Thus when a lump of gold is turned into a rod or a ring, all the specific qualities which come under the connotation of the word "gold"

are seen to continue, though the forms are successively changed, and with each such change some of its qualities are lost and some new ones are acquired. Such being the case, the truth comes to this, that there is always a permanent ent.i.ty as represented by the permanence of such qualities as lead us to call it a substance in spite of all its diverse changes. The nature of being (_sat_) then is neither the absolutely unchangeable, nor the momentary changing qualities or existences, but involves them both. Being then, as is testified by experience, is that which involves a permanent unit, which is incessantly every moment losing some qualities and gaining new ones. The notion of being involves a permanent (_dhruva_) accession of some new qualities (_utpada_) and loss of some old qualities (_vyaya_) [Footnote ref.1]. The solution of Jainism is thus a reconciliation of the two extremes of Vedantism and Buddhism on grounds of common-sense experience.

The Doctrine of Relative Pluralism (anekantavada).

This conception of being as the union of the permanent and change brings us naturally to the doctrine of Anekantavada or what we may call relative pluralism as against the extreme absolutism of the [email protected] and the pluralism of the Buddhists.

The Jains regarded all things as _anekanta_ (_na-ekanta_), or in other words they held that nothing could be affirmed absolutely, as all affirmations were true only under certain conditions and limitations. Thus speaking of a gold jug, we see that its existence as a substance (_dravya_) is of the nature of a collocation of atoms and not as any other substance such as s.p.a.ce (_akas'a_), i.e. a gold jug is a _dravya_ only in one sense of the term and not in every sense; so it is a _dravya_ in the sense that it is a collocation of atoms and not a _dravya_ in the sense of s.p.a.ce or time (_kala_). It is thus both a dravya and not a dravya at one and the same time. Again it is atomic in the sense that it is a composite of earth-atoms and not atomic in the sense that it is

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[Footnote: 1: See _Tattvarthadhigamasutra_, and [email protected]'s treatment of Jainism in [email protected]@ddars'anasamuccaya_.]

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not a composite of water-atoms. Again it is a composite of earth-atoms only in the sense that gold is a metallic modification of earth, and not any other modification of earth as clay or stone.

Its being const.i.tuted of metal-atoms is again true in the sense that it is made up of gold-atoms and not of iron-atoms. It is made up again of gold-atoms in the sense of melted and unsullied gold and not as gold in the natural condition. It is again made up of such unsullied and melted gold as has been hammered and shaped by the goldsmith Devadatta and not by Yajnadatta.