Part 1 (1/2)
On the Indian Sect of the Jainas.
by Johann George Buehler.
PREFACE.
The late Dr. Georg Buhler's essay _Ueber die Indische Secte der Jaina_, read at the anniversary meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna on the 26th May 1887, has been for some time out of print in the separate form. Its value as a succinct account of the Sravaka sect, by a scholar conversant with them and their religious literature is well known to European scholars; but to nearly all educated natives of India works published in German and other continental languages are practically sealed books, and thus the fresh information which they are well able to contribute is not elicited. It is hoped that the translation of this small work may meet with their acceptance and that of Europeans in India and elsewhere to whom the original is either unknown or who do not find a foreign language so easy to read as their own.
The translation has been prepared under my supervision, and with a few short footnotes. Professor Buhler's long note on the authenticity of the Jaina tradition I have transferred to an appendix (p. 48) incorporating with it a summary of what he subsequently expanded in proof of his thesis.
To Colebrooke's account of the Tirtha?karas reverenced by the Jainas, but little has been added since its publication in the ninth volume of the _Asiatic Researches_; and as these are the centre of their wors.h.i.+p, always represented in their temples, and surrounded by attendant figures,-I have ventured to add a somewhat fuller account of them and a summary of the general mythology of the sect, which may be useful to the archaeologist and the student of their iconography.
Edinburgh, April 1903. J. BURGESS.
THE INDIAN SECT OF THE JAINAS.
The _Jaina_ sect is a religious society of modern India, at variance to Brahmanism, and possesses undoubted claims on the interest of all friends of Indian history. This claim is based partly on the peculiarities of their doctrines and customs, which present several resemblances to those of Buddhism, but, above all, on the fact that it was founded in the same period as the latter.
Larger and smaller communities of _Jainas_ or _Arhata_,-that is followers of the prophet, who is generally called simply the _Jina_-'the conqueror of the world',-or the _Arhat_-'the holy one',-are to be found in almost every important Indian town, particularly among the merchant cla.s.s. In some provinces of the West and North-west, in Gujarat, Rajputana, and the Panjab, as also in the Dravidian districts in the south,-especially in Kanara,-they are numerous; and, owing to the influence of their wealth, they take a prominent place. They do not, however, present a compact ma.s.s, but are divided into two rival branches-the _Digambara_ and _Svetambara_ [Footnote: In notes on the Jainas, one often finds the view expressed, that the _Digambaras_ belong only to the south, and the _Svetambaras_ to the north. This is by no means the case. The former in the Panjab, in eastern Rajputana and in the North West Provinces, are just as numerous, if not more so, than the latter, and also appear here and there in western Rajputana and Gujarat: see _Indian Antiquary_, vol. VII, p. 28.]-each of which is split up into several subdivisions. The Digambara, that is, ”those whose robe is the atmosphere,” owe their name to the circ.u.mstance that they regard absolute nudity as the indispensable sign of holiness, [Footnote: The ascetics of lower rank, now called Pa??it, now-a-days wear the costume of the country. The Bha??araka, the heads of the sect, usually wrap themselves in a large cloth (_chadr_). They lay it off during meals. A disciple then rings a bell as a sign that entrance is forbidden (_Ind. Ant._ loc. cit.). When the present custom first arose cannot be ascertained. From the description of the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang (St. Julien, _Vie._ p. 224), who calls them Li-hi, it appears that they were still faithful to their principles in the beginning of the seventh century A.D. ”The Li-hi (Nirgranthis) distinguish themselves by leaving their bodies naked and pulling out their hair. Their skin is all cracked, their feet are hard and chapped: like rotting trees that one sees near rivers.”]-though the advance of civilization has compelled them to depart from the practice of their theory. The Svetambara, that is, ”they who are clothed in white”-do not claim this doctrine, but hold it as possible that the holy ones, who clothe themselves, may also attain the highest goal. They allow, however, that the founder of the Jaina religion and his first disciples disdained to wear clothes. They are divided, not only by this quarrel, but also by differences about dogmas and by a different literature. The separation must therefore be of old standing. Tradition, too, upholds this-though the dates given do not coincide. From inscriptions it is certain that the split occurred before the first century of our era. [Footnote: See below p. 44.] Their opposing opinions are manifested in the fact that they do not allow each other the right of intermarriage or of eating at the same table,-the two chief marks of social equality. In spite of the age of the schism, and the enmity that divides the two branches, they are at one as regards the arrangement of their communities, doctrine, discipline, and cult,-at least in the more important points; and, thus, one can always speak of the Jaina religion as a whole.
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 n.o.ble Aryan, but also to the low-born Sudra and even to the alien, deeply despised in India, the Mlechcha.
[Footnote: In the stereotyped introductions to the sermons of Jina it is always pointed out that they are addressed to the Aryan and non-Aryan.
Thus in the _Aupapatika Sutra_ -- 56. (Leumann) it runs as follows: _tesi? savvesi? a?iyamanariyana? agilae dhammat?
aikkhai_ ”to all these, Aryans and non-Aryans, he taught the law untiringly”. In accordance with this principle, conversions of people of low caste, such as gardeners, dyers, etc., are not uncommon even at the present day. Muhammadans too, regarded as Mlechcha, are still received among the Jaina communities. Some cases of the kind were communicated to me in A?madabad in the year 1876, as great triumphs of the Jainas.
Tales of the conversion of the emperor Akbar, through the patriarch Hiravijaya (_Ind. Antiq._ Vol. XI, p. 256), and of the spread of the Digambara sect in an island Jainabhadri, in the Indian Ocean (_Ind.
Ant._ Vol. VII, p. 28) and in Arabia, shew that the Jainas are familiar with the idea of the conversion of non-Indians. Hiuen Tsiang's note on the appearance of the Nirgrantha or Digambara in Kiapis.h.i.+ (Beal, _Si-yu-ki_, Vol. I, p. 55), points apparently to the fact that they had, in the North West at least, spread their missionary activity beyond the borders of India.] 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 Sadhus-”Holy”, which, among the Svetambara also admits women, [Footnote: Even the canonical works of the Svetambara, as for example, the _achara?ga (Sacred Books of the East_, Vol. XXII, p. 88-186) contain directions for nuns. It seems, however, that they have never played such an important part as in Buddhism. At the present time, the few female orders among the Svetambara consist entirely of virgin widows, whose husbands have died in childhood, before the beginning of their life together. It is not necessary to look upon the admission of nuns among the Svetambara as an imitation of Buddhist teaching, as women were received into some of the old Brahmanical orders; see my note to _Manu_, VIII, 363, (_Sac.
Bks. of the East_, Vol. XXV, p. 317). Among the Digambaras, exclusion of women was demanded from causes not far to seek. They give as their reason for it, the doctrine that women are not capable of attaining _Nirva?a_; see Peterson, _Second Report_, in _Jour. Bom.
Br. R. As. Soc._ Vol. XVII, p. 84.] and under them the general community of the Upasaka ”the Wors.h.i.+ppers”, or the Sravaka, ”the hearers”.
The ascetics alone are able to penetrate into the truths which Jina teaches, to follow his rules and to attain to the highest reward which he promises. The laity, however, who do not dedicate themselves to the search after truth, and cannot renounce the life of the world, still find a refuge in Jainism. It is allowed to them as hearers to share its principles, and to undertake duties, which are a faint copy of the demands made on the ascetics. Their reward is naturally less. He who remains in the world cannot reach the highest goal, but he can still tread the way which leads to it. Like all religions of the Hindus founded on philosophical speculation, Jainism sees this highest goal in _Nirvana_ or _Moksha_, the setting free of the individual from the _Sa?sara_,-the revolution of birth and death. The means of reaching it are to it, as to Buddhism, the three Jewels-the right Faith, the right Knowledge, and the right Walk. By the right Faith it understands the full surrender of himself to the teacher, the Jina, the firm conviction that he alone has found the way of salvation, and only with him is protection and refuge to be found. Ask who Jina is, and the Jaina will give exactly the same answer as the Buddhist with respect to Buddha. He is originally an erring man, bound with the bonds of the world, who,-not by the help of a teacher, nor by the revelation of the Vedas-which, he declares, are corrupt-but by his own power, has attained to omniscience and freedom, and out of pity for suffering mankind preaches and declares the way of salvation, which he has found. Because he has conquered the world and the enemies in the human heart, he is called Jina ”the Victor”, Mahavira, ”the great hero”; because he possesses the highest knowledge, he is called Sarvajna or Kevalin, the ”omniscient”, Buddha, the ”enlightened”; because he has freed himself from the world he receives the names of Mukta ”the delivered one”, Siddha and Tathagata, ”the perfected”, Arhat ”the holy one”; and as the proclaimer of the doctrine, he is the Tirthakara ”the finder of the ford”, through the ocean of the _Sa?sara_. In these epithets, applied to the founder of their doctrine, the Jainas agree almost entirely with the Buddhists, as the likeness of his character to that of Buddha would lead us to expect. They prefer, however, to use the names Jina and Arhat, while the Buddhists prefer to speak of Buddha as Tathagata or Sugata. The t.i.tle Tirthakara is peculiar to the Jainas. Among the Buddhists it is a designation for false teachers. [Footnote: The t.i.tles Siddha, Buddha and Mukta are certainly borrowed by both sects from the terminology of the Brahma?s, which they used, even in olden times, to describe those saved during their lifetimes and used in the Saivite doctrine to describe a consecrated one who is on the way to redemption. An Arhat, among the Brahma?s, is a man distinguished for his knowledge and pious life (comp. for example apastamba, _Dharmasutra._ I, 13, 13; II, 10, I.) and this idea is so near that of the Buddhists and the Jainas that it may well be looked upon as the foundation of the latter. The meaning of Tirthakara ”prophet, founder of religion”, is derived from the Brahmanic use of _tirtha_ in the sense of ”doctrine”. Comp. also H. Jacobi's Article on the t.i.tle of Buddha and Jina, _Sac. Books of the East_. Vol. XXII, pp. xix, xx.]
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 n.o.ble, warlike tribes. Only in such, not among the low Brahma?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, [Footnote: A Sagara or Sagaropama of years is == 100,000,000,000,000 Palya or Palyopama. A Palya is a period in which a well, of one or, according to some, a hundred _yojana_, i.e.
of one or a hundred geographical square miles, stuffed full of fine hairs, can be emptied, if one hair is pulled out every hundred years: Wilson, _Select. Works_, Vol. I, p. 309; Colebrooke, _Essays_, Vol. II, p. 194. ed. Cowell.]-was born as the son of a king of Ayodhya 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, Parsva and the twenty fourth Vardhamana, 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 Ma.n.u.s, 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, [Footnote: For the list of these Jinas, see below.]
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 princ.i.p.al features are shortly as follows. [Footnote: More complete representations are to be found in Colebrooke's _Misc. Essays_. Vol.
I, pp. 404, 413, with Cowell's Appendix p. 444-452; Vol. II, pp. 194, 196, 198-201; H. H. Wilson's _Select Works_, Vol. I, pp. 297-302, 305-317; J. Stevenson, _Kalpasutra_, pp. xix-xxv; A. Barth, _Religions de l'Inde_, pp. 84-91.]
The world (by which we are to understand, not only the visible, but also imaginary continents depicted with the most extravagant fancy, heavens and h.e.l.ls of the Brahmanical Cosmology, extended by new discoveries) is uncreated. It exists, without ruler, only by the power of its elements, and is everlasting. The elements of the world are six substances-souls, _Dharma_ or moral merit, _Adharma_ or sin, s.p.a.ce, time, particles of matter. From the union of the latter spring four elements-earth, fire, water, wind-and further, bodies and all other appearances of the world of sense and of the supernatural worlds. The forms of the appearances are mostly unchangeable. Only the bodies of men and their age increase or decrease in consequence of the greater or less influence of sin or merit, during immeasurably long periods,-the _Avasarpi?i_ and the _Utsarpi?i_. Souls are, each by itself, independent, real existences whose foundation is pure intelligence, and who possess an impulse to action. In the world they are always chained to bodies. The reason of this confinement is that they give themselves up to the stress of activity, to pa.s.sions, to influences of the senses and objects of the mind, or attach themselves to a false belief.
The deeds which they perform in the bodies are _Karman_, merit and sin. This drives them-when one body has pa.s.sed away, according to the conditions of its existence-into another, whose quality depends on the character of the _Karman_, and will be determined especially by the last thoughts springing from it before death. Virtue leads to the heavens of the G.o.ds or to birth among men in pure and n.o.ble races. Sin consigns the souls to the lower regions, in the bodies of animals, in plants, even into ma.s.ses of lifeless matter. For-according to the Jaina doctrine-souls exist not only in organic structures, but also in apparently dead ma.s.ses, in stones, in lumps of earth, in drops of water, in fire and in wind. Through union with bodies the nature of the soul is affected. In the ma.s.s of matter the light of its intelligence is completely concealed; it loses consciousness, is immovable, and large or small, according to the dimensions of its abode. In organic structures it is always conscious; it depends however, on the nature of the same, whether it is movable or immovable and possessed of five, four, three, two, or one organ of sense.
The bondage of souls, if they inhabit a human body, can be abolished by the suppression of the causes which lead to their confinement and by the destruction of the _Karman_. The suppression of the causes is accomplished by overcoming the inclination to be active and the pa.s.sions, by the control of the senses, and by steadfastly holding to the right faith. In this way will be hindered the addition of new _Karman_, new merit or new guilt. The destruction of _Karman_ remaining from previous existences can be brought about either spontaneously by the exhaustion of the supply or by asceticism. In the latter case the final state is the attainment to a knowledge which penetrates the universe, to _Kevala, Jnana_ and _Nirva?a_ or _Moksha_: full deliverance from all bonds. These goals may be reached even while the soul is still in its body. If however the body is destroyed then the soul wanders into the ”No-World” _(aloka)_ as the Jain says, i.e. into the heaven of Jina 'the delivered', lying outside the world. [Footnote: On the Jaina Paradise see below. Dr. Buhler seems here to have confounded the _Aloka_ or Non-world, 'the s.p.a.ce where only things without life are found', with the heaven of the Siddhas; but these are living beings who have crossed the boundary] There it continues eternally in its pure intellectual nature. Its condition is that of perfect rest which nothing disturbs. These fundamental ideas are carried out in the particulars with a subtilness and fantasy unexampled, even in subtile and fantastic India, in a scholarly style, and defended by the _syadvada_-the doctrine of ”It may be so”,-a mode of reasoning which makes it possible to a.s.sert and deny the existence of one and the same thing. If this be compared with the other Indian systems, it stands nearer the Brahma? than the Buddhist, with which it has the acceptance in common of only four, not five elements. Jainism touches all the Brahma? religions and Buddhism in its cosmology and ideas of periods, and it agrees entirely with regard to the doctrines of _Karman_, of the bondage, and the deliverance of souls.
Atheism, the view that the world was not created, is common to it with Buddhism and the Sa?khya philosophy. Its psychology approaches that of the latter in that both believe in the existence of innumerable independent souls. But the doctrine of the activity of souls and their distribution into ma.s.ses of matter is in accordance with the Vedanta, according to which the principle of the soul penetrates every thing existing. In the further development of the soul doctrine, the conceptions 'individual soul' and 'living being' to which the Jaina and the Brahma?
give the same name,-_jiva_, seem to become confounded. The Jaina idea of s.p.a.ce and time as real substances is also found in the Vaises.h.i.+ka system. In placing _Dharma_ and _Adharma_ among substances Jainism stands alone.
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 Brahma? penitent, and almost in the same words, not to hurt, not to speak untruth, to appropriate nothing to himself without permission, to preserve chast.i.ty, 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.
[Footnote: The Digambara sect, at least in southern India, do not seem to be all quite so punctiliously careful in this as the Svetambara of western India.-Ed.] 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. [Footnote: On the five great vows see the _achara?ga Sutra_, II, 15: _S.B.E_. Vol. XXII, pp. 202-210.
The Sanskrit terms of the Jains are: 1. _ahi?sa_, 2.
_sunrita_, 3. _asteya_, 4. _brahmacharya_, 5.