THE JAINS.
JULY, 1873.]
cided indeed whether Dhaneśvara was the au
thor of the Satruñjayamāhātmya, or whether a later writer has made use of his name in writing the history of his sect; I prefer, however, the second supposition, because in the passages where D h a n e S v ar a appears as the teacher
of Si là dity a he is mentioned in the third person.”
After this estimate of the value of the
Satruñjayamāhātmya, I am unable also to place much faith in the time of the death of Vira nar
197
After this, of course, merely approximative determination of the beginning of the Jaina doctrine, I proceed to set forth the most impor tant arguments for their Buddhist origin. For this origin, first of all, two names vouched for by them testify, i. e. Jaina and Arhata, the former being a derivation from an oft-used name of Buddha, i.e. Jina, and the latter desig nates not merely one of the highest degrees of the Buddhist hierarchy, but also Buddha him
According to it he died 947 years
self." Further, the Jainas assume 24 Jinas,
before the first year of Silādity a 's reign,
in which particular they agree with the Bud dhists, who also specially point out just as many Buddhas.” That the names are different among the Jainas does not invalidate the com parison. Of the other names of Jina only two more need be pointed out here, i. e. Sarvajna,
rated in it.
which event took place according to that book A.D. 555.f Accordingly W i r a would have died 392 B. c. This decision would place the Jaina sect back in too early an age, as any disin terested person can easily see. According to other data, this man, who is so prominent in the traditions of the Jainas, departed this life 980 years before A.D. 411; in which year Bha drab a hu published his Kalpasūtra, that is,
omniscient, and Sugitta, which are applied also to Buddha. On the other hand, the Jainas
ing to the inscriptions D h r u v as en a reigned
have attempted an approach to the Brahmans by attributing to their Supreme Being the name Tirthankara; it designated merely the preparer of a tirtha, or holy place of pilgrimage, whilst the Buddhists applied to their antagonists the name Tirthya and Tirthika.
from about 632 till 650, so that that celebrated Tirºhaſkara must have died in 358 B.C. § This
A second coincidence between the Jainas and the Bauddhas manifests itself in the circumstance
during the reign of Dh r u v as en a £ Accord ing to this determination the death of Vira must have taken place 569 B. C.
But accord
conclusion also would make the beginning of
that the former pay divine homage also to
the separation of the Jainas from the Baud
mortal men, namely, to their teachers, and erect statues to them in their temples; this is special ly the caset with the 23rd Jina or Tirthankara Pārśvanātha, as will afterwards appear. This
dhas too early, and it must be reserved to later
discoveries to ascertain accurately this period.
Approximately, I propose to place the first be ginnings of the Jaina doctrine about the 1st or 2nd century after Christ. In this it must not be overlooked that to Mahá v i r a a large share in the propagation of the religious doctrine
represented by him must also be assigned ; he had most probably a real precursor, the 23rd Jina, i.e. Pârş van à tha, and is also called Vardh a m a na.|
- See above, p. 195.
coincidence is no doubt an appropriation on the part of the Jainas. The same holds good also— and this is a third agreement between the two
religions—of the great value which the Jainas attribute to the ahinsd, i. e. non-lesion of all
living beings. Some of their Yatis or pious men go so far in this respect that they sweep the streets in which they walk with a broom
- On this degree see Ind. Alt. II. p. 541, and Boehtlingk
and Roth’s Sanskrit Wörterbuche under the word arhat.
+ See above, p. 195. From the reasons adduced above,
- See Colebrooke (passim ) in his Misc. Essays, II. p.
it follows that I cannot agree with the calculation proposed
297, Wilson (passim) in As. Res. XVII. p. 250, and J. Foley's
by A. Weber (passim, p. 12), according to which Vira died 947 years before 598 A.D., i. e. 349. I shall again below
Notes on the Buddha from Cingalese authorities, and in
return to a second determination of this event.
1 J. Stevenson's preface to his edition of this book, p. ix. Hitherto this book is the oldest in the literature of the Jainas, the age of which can be accurately ascer tained.
§ On the time of the reign of this sovereign, see Ind. Alº. III. pp. 520, 521.
J. of the As. S. of Beng. V. p. 321. The 24 Bauddhas are considered the predecessors of the historical Buddha. A list of the 24 Jinas or Tárthankaras, with notices of their acts and duration of their lives, occurs in Colebrooke's
Misc. Ess. II. p. 207 seqq. and Wilson As. Res. XVII. p. 220. [And a more extended account in the second of these papers, supra, p. 134.]
+ It is scarcely necessary to correct this mistake, founded on the somewhat loose statements of early writers.
| A short account of his life occurs in Wilson's Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, in As. Res. XVII.
- . 251
seqq.
As is usual in similar narratives, here also
ctions are commingled with the truth.
At Sa
truñjaya, Adin àth a or Rish a bh a deva is probably most frequently represented, and he, together with Nemi nātha, and Mahāvīra appear to be general favourites in
Gujarat and Rajputana.-E.D.