262

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[SEPTEMBER, 1873.

rejected; therefore the adherents of the prede cessor are called Svetámbara, i.e. white-dressed,

through the deepest insight into the true nature of things and by the most perfect virtue. Š He further maintained that matter is a reality, and thereby rejected two fundamental doctrines of Buddhism, according to which all existences

whilst those of Mahā vira are, on account of

are without contents and substance, and the first

their nudity, called Digambaras. Afterwards M a håv i r a roamed through various regions of Central India, but especially through the countries on the middle course of

cause of all things is avidyā, i. e. non-existence and untruth.* Mahā vira acquired many adherents, as the following statements will prove. The number of the holy men or Sadhus amounted to 14,000, and of the Stidhris

served the injunctions of Pär Švan à th a concerning dress, which P a r S v an āth a ad mitted, but Mahá v i r a on the contrary entirely

the G a figã, in the neighbourhood of which the town Kau Šâ m bi is situated”.

Here he

or holy women to 36,000; the Sramanas, i. e.

devoted himself during nearly eleven years to the strictest asceticism and to the hardest privations, whereby heattained the highest degreeof wisdom

pious men acquainted with the sacred scriptures

and sanctity. Thus he awakened the envy and hatred especially of the Brahmansin M a g a dha.

called Purva, amounted to 300.

The number of

the Avadhijnánin, or such priests as are acquaint ed with the limits of the injunctions was just as considerable. There were 700 Kevalin, i. e. pious

Three sons of the Brahman V a sub h (, ti, born

men who abstained from works and devoted

in this country, of the Gautama family, called In dra b h (, ti, Agni bh a ti, and Vä yu b h (, ti, imagined they could refute the doc trines of M a h fi v i r a, but were vanquished by him and became the most zealous adherents of their former antagonist.* The latter be

themselves entirely to contemplative life, and 500 Manorid, i. e. possessors of wisdom. By the name Vádin, men are designated who are skilled in carrying on disputations: their

took himself after this brilliant success to the

the Srárikás or women of this kind was

court of king H as tip a la in A p a p a puri

stated to be 300,000, an evident exaggeration. Of the eleven most prominent disciples of Mahā vira, only In drab hiti and Su

or Păp a puri or Pava puri, in the vicinity of the ancient capital Rāja griha, where, at the age of 72 years, he terminated his eventful life. After his death his corpse was solemnly

number was 400.

The number of Srivakas

or laymen amounted to 51,000, and that of

d harm a or Sud harm a n survived him. In favour of the view that Mahā v i r a was the

burnt.: If Pär Švan à tha is to be considered as the real founder of the Jaina doctrine, Vardha

real propagator of the Jaina doctrine, it may be

m a na or Mahā vira must be regarded as the propagator thereof. His chief tenets were that he attributed a real existence to jīva, the soul, and supposed that it imparts life to individual bodies, and is destined to bear all the pains and troubles of migration through many various

That this doctrine was propagated from Ma

forms, until it gets liberated from these bonds

Pārśvanātha, died and was buried there.

-

• On the position of this town see Ind. Alt. III. 200,

note 2.

+ Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 256 seqq., who communicates several statements about these three and the eight re

maining disciples of Mahāv i r a from the commentary of He m a ch a n dra to his Dictionary, and justly notices that Buchanan Hamilton is mistaken in assuming, in the . Trans. of the R. As. S. I. p. 53S, that In dra b h , ti, who is, on account of his descent of course, also called G a u tama, is no other than G a ut a ma Budd h a himself. He m a chan dra enumerates, I. v. 31 seqq. p. 7, the 11 Ganādhipas or presidents of the assemblies, who bear the following names:– In dra b h (1 ti, Ag nib h (, ti, and

V a yu bh a ti : these three brothers were Gautam as : M and it a and Maury a p n tra were step-brothers and

adduced that the writer of the Satruñjaya máhātmya makes him the author of his book. g a dha, or,if it so pleases, from Southern Bihār, to the other parts of India, becomes almost cer tair from the circumstance that Mahā v i r a

botained his most important triumphs just in that country, and that he, as well as his predecessor To

were likewise descendants of ancestors of Brahmanic fami es.

J. Kalpasſ tra, vi. p. 84 seqq.; Colebrooke, Misc. Es says, II. p. 215, and Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 261. The statement here made, that M a håv i r a died 1669 years before the conversion of the Chilu kya king Kum *ra p &l a to the doctrine of the Jainas, is just as worthless as the information that the Kalpasatra was first publicly read 980 years after that event; this monarch began,

according to Ind. Alt. III. p. 567, to reign in 1174, so that Mah i. v i r a would have died 495 years before Christ. Wilson, As. Ites. XVII. p. 259. | Soo Ind. Alt. II. 461.

i

respectively descendants of the Vedic Rishis V as is h th a and K as y a p a ; V y a kta, Sudh arm a , A k a n

• Wilson, As. Res. XVII. p. 260. He properly observes

that Sádhu is not a general name for Jaina priests, but only for one division of them; this conception of the name is prº ferable to that given by J. Stevenson (see above, p. 260, n. §).

pit a, A ch a lab hr fit ri, Met a rya, and Prabhāsa,

On the title I'll rva see above, p. 199.