JAINISM.[1]
One cannot read the Upanishads without feeling that he is already
facing an intellectual revolt. Not only in the later tracts, which are
inspired with devotion to a supreme and universal Lord, but even in
the oldest of these works the atmosphere, as compared with that of the
earlier Brahmanic period, is essentially different. The close and
stifling air of ritualism has been charged with an electrical current
of thought that must soon produce a storm.
That storm reached a head in Buddhism, but its premonitory signs
appear in the Upanishads, and its first outbreak preceded the advent
of Gautama. Were it possible to draw a line of demarcation between the
Upanishads that come before and after Buddhism, it would be
historically more correct to review the two great schisms, Jainism and
Buddhism, before referring to the sectarian Upanishads. For these
latter in their present form are posterior to the rise of the two
great heresies. But, since such a division is practically uncertain in
its application, we have thought it better in our sketch of the
Upanishads and legal literature to follow to the end the course of
that agitated thought, which, starting with the great identification
of _jiva_, the individual spirit, and _[=a]tm[=a]_, the world-spirit,
the All, continues till it loses itself in a multiplication of
sectarian dogmas, where the All becomes the god that has been elected
by one communion of devotees.[2]
The external characteristics of Upanishad thought are those of a
religion that has replaced formal acts by formal introspection. The
Yogin devotee, who by mystic communion desires absorption into the
world-spirit, replaces the Sanny[=a]sin and Yati ascetics, who would
accomplish the same end by renunciation and severe self-mortification.
This is a fresh figure on the stage of thought, where before were mad
Munis, beggars, and miracle-mongers. On this stage stands beside the
ascetic the theoretical theosophist who has succeeded in identifying
himself, soberly, not in frenzy, with God.[3] What were the practical
results of this teaching has been indicated in part already. The
futility of the stereotyped religious offices was recognized. But
these offices could not be discarded by the orthodox. With the lame
and illogical excuse that they were useful as discipline, though
unessential in reality, they were retained by the Brahman priest. Not
so by the Jain; still less so by the Buddhist.
In the era in which arose the public revolt against the dogmatic
teaching of the Brahman there were more sects than one that have now
passed away forgotten. The eastern part of India, to which appertain
the later part of the Çatapatha Br[=a]hmana and the schismatic
heresies, was full of religious and philosophical controversy. The
great heretics were not innovators in heresy. The Brahmans permitted,
encouraged, and shared in theoretical controversy. There was nothing
in the tenets of Jainism or of Buddhism that from a philosophical
point of view need have caused a rupture with the Brahmans.
But the heresies, nevertheless, do not represent the priestly caste,
so much as the caste most apt to rival and to disregard the claim of
the Brahman, viz., the warrior-caste. They were supported by kings,
who gladly stood against priests. To a great extent both Jainism and
Buddhism owed their success (amid other rival heresies with no less
claim to good protestantism) to the politics of the day. The kings of
the East were impatient of the Western church; they were pleased to
throw it over. The leaders in the 'reformation' were the younger sons
of noble blood. The church received many of these younger sons as
priests. Both Buddha and Mah[=a]v[=i]ra were, in fact, revolting
adherents of the Brahmanic faith, but they were princes and had
royalty to back them.
Nor in the Brahmanhood of Benares was Brahmanhood at its strongest.
The seat of the Vedic cult lay to the westward, where it arose, in the
'holy land,' which received the Vedic Aryans after they had crossed
out of the Punj[=a]b. With the eastward course of conquest the
character of the people and the very orthodoxy of the priests were
relaxed. The country that gave rise to the first heresies was one not
consecrated to the ancient rites. Very slowly had these rites marched
thither, and they were, so to speak, far from their religious base of
supplies. The West was more conservative than the East. It was the
home of the rites it favored. The East was but a foster-father. New
tribes, new land, new growth, socially and intellectually,--all these
contributed in the new seat of Brahmanhood to weaken the hold of the
priests upon their speculative and now recalcitrant laity. So before
Buddha there were heretics and even Buddhas, for the title was
Buddha's only by adoption. But of most of these earlier sects one
knows little. Three or four names of reformers have been handed down;
half a dozen opponents or rivals of Buddha existed and vied
with him. Most important of these, both on account of his probable
priority and because of the lasting character of his school, was the
founder or reformer of Jainism, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra Jñ[=a]triputra,[4] who
with his eleven chief disciples may be regarded as the first open
seceders from Brahmanism, unless one assign the same date to the
revolt of Buddha. The two schisms have so much in common, especially
in outward features, that for long it was thought that Jainism was a
sub-sect of Buddhism. In their legends, in the localities in which
they flourished, and in many minutiae of observances they are alike.
Nevertheless, their differences are as great as the resemblance
between them, and what Jainism at first appeared to have got of
Buddhism seems now to be rather the common loan made by each sect from
Brahmanism. It is safest, perhaps, to rest in the assurance that the
two heresies were contemporaries of the sixth century B.C, and leave
unanswered the question which Master preceded the other, though we
incline to the opinion that the founder of Jainism, be he
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra or his own reputed master, P[=a]rçvan[=a]tha, had
founded his sect before Gautama became Buddha. But there is one good
reason for treating of Jainism before Buddhism,[5] and that is, that
the former represents a theological mean between Brahmanism and
Buddhism.
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, the reputed founder of his sect, was, like Buddha
and perhaps his other rivals, of aristocratic birth. His father is
called king, but he was probably hereditary chief of a district
incorporated as a suburb of the capital city of Videha, while by
marriage he was related to the king of Videha, and to the ruling house
of M[=a]gadha. His family name was Jñ[=a]triputra, or, in his own
Prakrit (Ardham[=a]gadh[=i]) dialect, N[=a]taputta; but by his sect he
was entitled the Great Hero, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra; the Conqueror, Jina; the
Great One, Vardham[=a]na (Vardahmana in the original), etc. His sect
was that of the Nirgranthas (Nigganthas), _i.e_., 'without bonds,'
perhaps the oldest name of the whole body. Later there are found no
less than seven sub-sects, to which come as eighth the Digambaras, in
contradistinction to all the seven Çvet[=a]mbara sects. These two
names represent the two present bodies of the church, one body being
the Çvet[=a]mbaras, or 'white-attire' faction, who are in the north
and west; the other, the Digambaras, or 'sky-attire,' _i.e_., naked
devotees of the south. The latter split off from the main body about
two hundred years after Mah[=a]v[=i]ra's death; as has been thought by
some, because the Çvet[=a]mbaras refused to follow the Digambaras in
insisting upon nakedness as the rule for ascetics.[6] The earlier
writings show that nakedness was recommended, but was not
compulsory.[7] Other designations of the main sects, as of the
sub-sects, are found. Thus, from the practice of pulling out the hairs
of their body, the Jains were derisively termed Luñcitakeças, or
'hair-pluckers.' The naked devotees of this school are probably the
gymnosophists of the Greek historians, although this general term may
have been used in describing other sects, as the practice of
dispensing with attire is common even to-day with many Hindu
devotees.[8]
An account of the Jain absurdities in the way of speculation would
indeed give some idea of their intellectual frailty, but, as in the
case of the Buddhists, such an account has but little to do with their
religion. It will suffice to state that the 'ages' of the Brahmans
from whom Jain and Buddhist derived their general conceptions of the
ages, are here reckoned quite differently; and that the first Jina of
the long series of pre-historic prophets lived more than eight million
years and was five hundred bow-lengths in height. Monks and laymen now
appear at large in India, a division which originated neither with
Jain nor Buddhist,[9] though these orders are more clearly divided
among the heretics, from whom, again, was borrowed by the Hindu sects,
the monastic institution, in the ninth century (A.D.), in all the
older heretical completeness. Although atheistic the Jain worshipped
the Teacher, and paid some regard to the Brahmanical divinities, just
as he worships the Hindu gods to-day, for the atheistical systems
admitted gods as demi-gods or dummy gods, and in point of fact became
very superstitious. Yet are both founder-worship and superstition
rather the growth of later generations than the original practice. The
atheism of the Jain means denial of a divine creative Spirit.[10]
Though at times in conflict with the Brahmans the Jains never departed
from India as did the Buddhists, and even Brahmanic priests in some
parts of India serve today in Jain temples.
In metaphysics as in religion the Jain differs radically from the
Buddhist. He believes in a dualism not unlike that of the S[=a]nkhyas,
whereas Buddhistic philosophy has no close connection with this
Brahmanic system. To the Jain eternal matter stands opposed to eternal
spirits, for (opposed to pantheism) every material entity (even water)
has its own individual spirit. The Jain's Nirv[=a]na, as Barth has
said, is escape from the body, not escape from existence.[11] Like the
Buddhist the Jain believes in reincarnation, eight births, after one
has started on the right road, being necessary to the completion of
perfection. Both sects, with the Brahmans, insist on the non-injury
doctrine, but in this regard the Jain exceeds his Brahmanical
teacher's practice. Both heretical sects claim that their reputed
founders were the last of twenty-four or twenty-five prophets who
preceded the real founder, each successively having become less
monstrous (more human) in form.
The Jain literature left to us is quite large[12] and enough has been
published already to make it necessary to revise the old belief in
regard to the relation between Jainism and Buddhism.
We have said that Jainism stands nearer to Brahmanism (with which,
however, it frequently had quarrels) than does Buddhism.[13] The most
striking outward sign of this is the weight laid on asceticism, which
is common to Brahmanism and Jainism but is repudiated by Buddhism.
Twelve years of asceticism are necessary to salvation, as thinks the
Jain, and this self-mortification is of the most stringent sort. But
it is not in their different conception of a Nirv[=a]na release rather
than of annihilation, nor in the S[=a]nkhya-like[14] duality they
affect, nor yet in the prominence given to self-mortification that the
Jains differ most from the Buddhists. The contrast will appear more
clearly when we come to deal with the latter sect. At present we take
up the Jain doctrine for itself.
The 'three gems' which, according to the Jains,[15] result in the
spirit's attainment of deliverance are knowledge, faith, and virtue,
or literally 'right knowledge, right intuition, and right practices.'
Right knowledge is a true knowledge of the relation of spirit and
not-spirit (the world consists of two classes, spirit and non-spirit),
the latter being immortal like the former. Right intuition is absolute
faith in the word of the Master and the declarations of the [=A]gamas,
or sacred texts. Right practices or virtue consists, according to the
Yogaç[=a]stra, in the correct fivefold conduct of one that has
knowledge and faith: (1) Non-injury, (2) kindness and speaking which
is true (in so far as the truth is pleasant to the hearer),[16] (3)
honorable conduct, typified by 'not stealing,' (4) chastity in word,
thought, and deed, (5) renunciation of earthly interests.
The doctrine of non-injury found but modified approval among the
Brahmans. They limited its application in the case of
sacrifice, and for this reason were bitterly taunted by the Jains as
'murderers.' "Viler than unbelievers," says the Yogaç[=a]stra, quoting
a law of Manu to the effect that animals may be slain for sacrifice,
"all those cruel ones who make the law that teaches killing."[17] For
this reason the Jain is far more particular in his respect for life
than is the Buddhist. Lest animate things, even plants and
animalculae, be destroyed, he sweeps the ground before him as he goes,
walks veiled lest he inhale a living organism, strains water, and
rejects not only meat but even honey, together with various fruits
that are supposed to contain worms; not because of his distaste for
worms but because of his regard for life. Other arguments which,
logically, should not be allowed to influence him are admitted,
however, in order to terrify the hearer. Thus the first argument
against the use of honey is that it destroys life; then follows the
argument that honey is 'spit out by bees' and therefore it is
nasty.[18]
The Jain differs from the Buddhist still more in ascetic practices. He
is a forerunner, in fact, of the horrible modern devotee whose
practices we shall describe below. The older view of seven hells in
opposition to the legal Brahmanic number of thrice seven is found (as
it is in the M[=a]rkandeya Pur[=a]na), but whether this be the rule we
cannot say.[19] It is interesting to see that hell is prescribed with
metempsychosis exactly as it is among the Brahmans.[20] Reincarnation
onearth and punishment in hells between reincarnation seems to be the
usual belief. The salvation which is attained by the practice of
knowledge, faith, and five-fold virtue, is not immediate, but it will
come after successive reincarnations; and this salvation is the
freeing of the eternal spirit from the bonds of eternal matter; in
other words, it is much more like the 'release' of the Brahman than it
is like the Buddhistic Nirv[=a]na, though, of course, there is no
'absorption,' each spirit remaining single. In the order of the
Ratnatraya or 'three gems' Çankara appears to lay the greatest weight
on faith, but in Hemacandra's schedule knowledge[21] holds the first
place. This is part of that Yoga, asceticism, which is the most
important element in attaining salvation.[22]
Another division of right practices is cited by the Yogaç[=a]stra (I.
33 ff.): Some saints say that virtue is divided into five kinds of
care and three kinds of control, to wit, proper care in walking,
talking, begging for food, sitting, and performing natural functions
of the body--these constitute the five kinds of care, and the kinds of
control are those of thought, speech, and act. This teaching it is
stated, is for the monks. The practice of the laity is to accord with
the custom of their country.
The chief general rules for the laity consist in vows of obedience to
the true god, to the law, and to the (present) Teacher; which are
somewhat like the vows of the Buddhist. God here is the Arhat, the
'venerable' founder of the sect. The laic has also five lesser vows:
not to kill, not to lie, not to steal, not to commit adultery or
fornication, to be content with little.
According to the Ç[=a]stra already cited the laic must rise early in
the morning, worship the god's idol at home, go to the temple and
circumambulate the Jina idol three times, strewing flowers, and
singing hymnsand then read the Praty[=a]khy[=a]na (an old P[=u]rva,
gospel).[23] Further rules of prayer and practice guide him through
his day. And by following this rule he expects to obtain spiritual
'freedom' hereafter; but for his life on earth he is "without praise
or blame for this world or the next, for life or for death, having
meditation as his one pure wife" (iii. 150). He will become a god in
heaven, be reborn again on earth, and so, after eight successive
existences (the Buddhistic number), at last obtain salvation, release
(from bodies) for his eternal soul (153).
As in the Upanishads, the gods, like men, are a part of the system of
the universe. The wise man goes to them (becomes a god) only to return
to earth again. All systems thus unite hell and heaven with the
_karma_ doctrine. But in this Jain work, as in so many of the orthodox
writings, the weight is laid more on hell as a punishment than on
rebirth. Probably the first Jains did not acknowledge gods at all, for
it is an early rule with them not to say 'God rains,' or use any such
expression, but to say 'the cloud rains'; and in other ways they avoid
to employ a terminology which admits even implicitly the existence of
divinities. Yet do they use a god not infrequently as an agent of
glorification of Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, saying in later writings that Indra
transformed himself, to do the Teacher honor; and often they speak of
the gods and goddesses as if these were regarded as spirits. Demons
and inferior beings are also utilized in the same way, as when it is
said that at the Teacher's birth the demons (spirits) showered gold
upon the town.
The religious orders of the Çvet[=a]mbara sect contained nuns as well
as monks, although, as we have said, women are not esteemed very
favorably: "The world is greatly troubled by women. People say that
women are vessels of pleasure. But this leads them to pain, to
delusion, to death, to hell, to birth as hell-beings or brute-beasts."
Such is the decision in the [=A]e[=a]r[=a]nga S[=u]tra, or book of
usages for the Jain monk and nun. From the same work we extract a few
rules to illustrate the practices of the Jains. This literature is the
most tedious in the world, and to give the gist of the heretic
law-maker's manual will suffice.
Asceticism should be practiced by monk and nun, if possible. But if
one finds that he cannot resist his passions, or is disabled and
cannot endure austerities, he may commit suicide; although this
release is sometimes reprehended, and is not allowable till one has
striven against yielding to such a means. But when the twelve years of
asceticism are passed one has assurance of reaching Nirv[=a]na, and so
may kill himself. Of Nirv[=a]na there is no description. It is
release, salvation, but it is of such sort that in regard to it
'speculation has no place,' and 'the mind cannot conceive of it'
(copied from the Upanishads). In other regards, in contrast to the
nihilistic Buddhist, the Jain assumes a doubtful attitude, so that he
is termed the 'may-be philosopher,' _sy[=a]dv[=a]din_,[24] in
opposition to the Buddhist, the philosopher of 'the void.'
But if the Jain may kill himself, he may not kill or injure anything
else. Not even food prepared over a fire is acceptable, lest he hurt
the 'fire-beings,' for as he believes in water-beings, so he believes
in fire-beings, wind-beings, etc. Every plant and seed is holy with
the sacredness of life. He may not hurt or drive away the insects that
torment his naked flesh. 'Patience is the highest good,' he declares,
and the rules for sitting and lying conclude with the statement that
not to move at all, not to stir, is the best rule. To lie naked,
bitten by vermin, and not to disturb them, is religion. Like a true
Puritan, the Jain regards pleasure in itself as sinful. "What is
discontent, and what is pleasure? One should live subject to neither.
Giving up all gaiety, circumspect, restrained, one should lead a
religious life. Man! Thou art thine own friend; why longest thou for a
friend beyond thyself?... First troubles, then pleasures; first
pleasures, then troubles. These are the cause of quarrels." And again,
"Let one think, 'I am I.'" _i.e_., let one be dependent on himself
alone. When a Jain monk or nun hears that there is to be a festival
(perhaps to the gods, to Indra, Skahda, Rudra, Vishnu,[25] or the
demons, as in [=A]c[=a]r[=a]nga S[=u]tra, ii. 1. 2) he must not go
thither; he must keep himself from all frivolities and entertainments.
During the four months of the rainy season he is to remain in one
place,[26] but at other times, either naked or attired in a few
garments, he is to wander about begging. In going on his begging tour
he is not to answer questions, nor to retort if reviled. He is to
speak politely (the formulae for polite address and rude address are
given), beg modestly, and not render himself liable to suspicion on
account of his behavior when in the house of one of the faithful.
Whatever be the quality of the food he must eat it, if it be not a
wrong sort. Rice and beans are especially recommended to him. The
great Teacher Jñ[=a]triputra (Mah[=a]v[=i]ra), it is said, never went
to shows, pantomines, boxing-matches, and the like; but, remaining in
his parents' house till their death, that he might not grieve his
mother, at the age of twenty-eight renounced the world with the
consent of the government, and betook himself to asceticism;
travelling naked (after a year of clothes) into barbarous lands, but
always converting and enduring the reproach of the wicked. He was
beaten and set upon by sinful men, yet was he never moved to anger.
Thus it was that he became the Arhat, the Jina, the Kevalin (perfect
sage).[27] It is sad to have to add, however, that Mah[=a]v[=i]ra is
traditionally said to have died in a fit of apoplectic rage.
The equipment of a monk are his clothes (or, better, none), his
alms-bowl, broom, and veil. He is 'unfettered,' in being without
desires and without injury to others. 'Some say that all sorts of
living beings may be slain, or abused, or tormented, or driven
away--the doctrine of the unworthy. The righteous man does not kill
nor cause others to kill. He should not cause the same punishment for
himself.'
The last clause is significant. What he does to another living being
will be done to him. He will suffer as he has caused others to suffer.
The chain from emotion to hell--the avoidance of the former is on
account of the fear of the latter--is thus connected: He who knows
wrath knows pride; he who knows pride knows deceit; he who knows
deceit knows greed (and so on; thus one advances) from greed to love,
from love to hate, from hate to delusion, from delusion to conception,
from conception to birth, from birth to death, from death to hell,
from hell to animal existence, 'and he who knows animal existence
knows pain.'
The five great vows, which have been thought by some scholars to be
copies of the Buddhistic rules, whereas they are really modifications
of the old Brahmanic rules for ascetics as explained in pre-Buddhistic
literature, are in detail as follows:[28]
The First vow: I renounce all killing of living beings, whether
subtile or gross, whether movable or immovable. Nor shall I myself
kill living beings nor cause others to do it, nor consent to it. As
long as I live I confess and blame, repent and exempt myself of these
sins in the thrice threefold way,[29] in mind, speech, and body.
The five 'clauses' that explain this vow are: (1) the Niggantha (Jain)
is careful in walking; (2) he does not allow his mind to act in a way
to suggest injury of living beings; (3) he does not allow his speech
to incite to injury; (4) he is careful in laying down his utensils;
(5) he inspects his food and drink lest he hurt living beings.
The Second Vow: I renounce all vices of lying speech arising from
anger, or greed, or fear, or mirth. I confess (etc, as in the first
vow).
The five clauses here explain that the Niggantha speaks only after
deliberation; does not get angry; renounces greed; renounces fear;
renounces mirth--lest through any of these he be moved to lie.
The Third Vow: I renounce all taking of anything not given, either in
a village, or a town, or a wood, either of little or much, or small or
great, of living or lifeless things. I shall neither take myself what
is not given nor cause others to take it, nor consent to their taking
it. As long as I live I confess (etc., as in the first vow).
The clauses here explain that the Niggantha must avoid different
possibilities of stealing, such as taking food without permission of
his superior. One clause states that he may take only a limited ground
for a limited time, _i.e_., he may not settle down indefinitely on a
wide area, for he may not hold land absolutely. Another clause insists
on his having his grant to the land renewed frequently.
The Fourth Vow: I renounce all sexual pleasures, either with gods, or
men, or animals. I shall not give way to sensuality (etc).
The clauses here forbid the Niggantha to discuss topics relating to
women, to contemplate the forms of women, to recall the pleasures and
amusements he used to have with women, to eat and drink too highly
seasoned viands, to lie near women.
The Fifth Vow: I renounce all attachments, whether little or much,
small or great, living or lifeless; neither shall I myself form such
attachments, nor cause others to do so, nor consent to their doing so
(etc.).
The five clauses particularize the dangerous attachments formed by
ears, eyes, smell, taste, touch.
It has been shown above (following Jacobi's telling comparison of the
heretical vows with those of the early Brahman ascetic) that these
vows are taken not from Buddhism but from Brahmanism. Jacobi opines
that the Jains took the four first and that the reformer
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra added the fifth as an offset to the Brahmanical vow of
liberality.[30] The same writer shows that certain minor rules of the
Jain sect are derived from the same Brahmanical source.
The main differences between the two Jain sects have been catalogued
in an interesting sketch by Williams,[31] who mentions as the chief
Jain stations of the north Delhi (where there is an annual gathering),
Jeypur, and [=A]jm[=i]r. To these Mathur[=a] on the Jumna should be
added.[32] The Çvet[=a]mbaras had forty-five or forty-six [=A]gamas,
eleven or twelve Angas, twelve Up[=a]ngas, and other scriptures of the
third or fourth century B.C., as they claim. They do not go naked
(even their idols are clothed), and they admit women into the order.
The Digambaras do not admit women, go naked, and have for sacred texts
later works of the fifth century A.D. The latter of course assert that
the scriptures of the former sect are spurious.[33]
In distinction from the Buddhists the Jains of to-day keep up caste.
Some of them are Brahmans. They have, of course, a different
prayer-formula, and have no St[=u]pas or D[=a]gobas (to hold relics);
and, besides the metaphysical difference spoken of above, they differ
from the Buddhists in assuming that metempsychosis does not stop at
animal existence, but includes inanimate things (as these are regarded
by others). According to one of their own sect of to-day,
_ahi[.m]s[=a] paramo dharmas_, 'the highest law of duty is not to hurt
a living creature.'[34]
The most striking absurdity of the Jain reverence for life has
frequently been commented upon. Almost every city of western India,
where they are found, has its beast-hospital, where animals are kept
and fed. An amusing account of such an hospital, called Pi[=n]jra Pol,
at Saurar[=a]shtra, Surat, is given in the first number of the
_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_.[35] Five thousand rats were
supported in such a temple-hospital in Kutch.[36]
Of all the great religious sects of India that of N[=a]taputta is
perhaps the least interesting, and has apparently the least excuse for
being.[37] The Jains offered to the world but one great moral truth,
withal a negative truth, 'not to harm,' nor was this verity invented
by them. Indeed, what to the Jain is the great truth is only a
grotesque exaggeration of what other sects recognized in a reasonable
form. Of all the sects the Jains are the most colorless, the most
insipid. They have no literature worthy of the name. They were not
original enough to give up many orthodox features, so that they seem
like a weakened rill of Brahmanism, cut off from the source, yet
devoid of all independent character. A religion in which the chief
points insisted upon are that one should deny God, worship man, and
nourish vermin, has indeed no right to exist; nor has it had as a
system much influence on the history of thought. As in the case of
Buddhism, the refined Jain metaphysics are probably a late growth.
Historically these sectaries served a purpose as early protestants
against ritualistic and polytheistic Brahmanism; but their real
affinity with the latter faith is so great that at heart they soon
became Brahmanic again. Their position geographically would make it
seem probable that they, and not the Buddhists, had a hand in the
making of the ethics of the later epic.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: We retain here and in Buddhism the usual
terminology. Strictly speaking, Jainism is to Jina (the
reformer's title) as is Bauddhism to Buddha, so that one
should say Jinism, Buddhism, or Jainism, Bauddhism. Both
titles, Jina and Buddha ('victor' and 'awakened'), were
given to each leader; as in general many other mutual titles
of honor were applied by each sect to its own head, Jina,
Arhat ('venerable'), Mah[=a]v[=i]ra ('great hero'), Buddha,
etc. One of these titles was used, however, as a title of
honor by the Jains, but to designate heretics by the Buddhists,
viz., T[=i]rthankara (T[=i]rthakara in the original), 'prophet'
(see Jacobi, SBE. xxii. Introd. p. xx).]
[Footnote 2: It is possible, however, on the other hand,
that both Vishnuite and Çivaite sects (or, less anglicized,
Vaishnavas, Çaivas, if one will also say Vaidic for Vedic),
were formed before the end of the sixth century B.C. Not
long after this the divinities Çiva and Vishnu receive
especial honor.]
[Footnote 3: The Beggar (Çramana, Bhikshu), the Renunciator
(Sanny[=a]s[=i]n), the Ascetic (Yati), are Brahmanic terms
as well as sectarian.]
[Footnote 4: The three great reformers of this period are
Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, Buddha, and Gos[=a]la. The last was first a
pupil and then a rival of Mah[=a]v[=i]ra. The latter's
nephew, Jam[=a]li, also founded a distinct sect and became
his uncle's opponent, the speculative sectarian tendency
being as pronounced as it was about the same time in Hellas.
Gos[=a]la appears to have had quite a following, and his
sect existed for a long time, but now it is utterly
perished. An account of this reformer and of Jam[=a]li will
be found in Leumann's essay, _Indische Studien_, xvii. p. 98
ff. and in the appendix to Rockhill's _Life of Buddha_.]
[Footnote 5: The Nirgranthas (Jains) are never referred to
by the Buddhists as being a new sect, nor is their reputed
founder, N[=a]taputta, spoken of as their founder; whence
Jacobi plausibly argues that their real founder was older
than Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, and that the sect preceded that of
Buddha. Lassen and Weber have claimed, on the contrary, that
Jainism is a revolt against Buddhism. The identification of
N[=a]taputta (Jñ[=a]triputra) with Mah[=a]v[=i]ra is due to
Bühler and Jacobi (Kalpas[=u]tra, Introd. p.6).]
[Footnote 6: According to Jacobi, ZDMG. xxxviii. 17, the
split in the party arose in this way. About 350 B.C. some
Jain monks under the leadership of Bhadrab[=a]hu went south,
and they followed stricter rules of asceticism than did
their fellows in the north. Both sects are modifications of
the original type, and their differences did not result in
sectarian separation till about the time of our era, at
which epoch arose the differentiating titles of sects that
had not previously separated into formal divisions, but had
drifted apart geographically.]
[Footnote 7: Compare Jacobi, _loc. cit_. and Leumann's
account of the seven sects of the Çvet[=a]mbaras in the
essay in the _Indische Studien_ referred to above. At the
present day the Jains are found to the number of about a
million in the northwest (Çvet[=a]mbaras), and south
(Digambaras) of India. The original seat of the whole body
in its first form was, as we have said, near Benares, where
also arose and flourished Buddhism.]
[Footnote 8: Hemacandra's Yogaç[=a]stra, edited by Windisch,
ZDMG. xxviii. 185 ff. (iii. 133). The Jain's hate of women
did not prevent his worshipping goddesses as the female
energy like the later Hindu sects. The Jains are divided in
regard to the possibility of woman's salvation. The
Yogaç[=a]stra alludes to women as 'the lamps that burn on
the road that leads to the gate of hell,' ii. 87. The
Digambaras do not admit women into the order, as do the
Çvet[=a]mbaras.]
[Footnote 9: _Die Bharata-sage_, Leumann, ZDMG. xlviii.
p.65. See also above in the S[=u]tras. With the Jains there
is less of the monastic side of religion than with the
Buddhists.]
[Footnote 10: Jains are sometimes called Arhats on account
of their veneration for the Arhat or chief Jina (whence
Jain). Their only real gods are their chiefs or Teachers,
whose idols are worshipped in the temples. Thus, like the
Buddhist and some Hindu sects of modern times, they have
given up God to worship man. Rather have they adopted an
idolatry of man and worship of womanhood, for they also
revere the female energy. Positivism has ancient models!]
[Footnote 11: The Jain sub-sects did not differ much among
themselves in philosophical speculation. Their differences
were rather of a practical sort.]
[Footnote 12: See the list of the Bertin MSS.; Weber,
_Berlin MSS_. vol. ii. 1892; and the thirty-third volume of
the German Oriental Journal, pp. 178, 693. For an account of
the literature see also Jacobi's introduction to the SBE.
vol. xxii; and Weber, _Ueber die heiligen Schriften der
Jaina_ in vols. xvi, xvii of the _Indische Studien_
(translated by Smyth in the Indian Antiquary); and the
Bibliography (below).]
[Footnote 13: A case of connection in legends between
Buddhist and Jain is mentioned below. Another is the history
of king Paêsi, elaborated in Buddhistic literature
(Tripitaka) and in the second Jain Up[=a]nga alike, as has
been shown by Leumann.]
[Footnote 14: The Jain's spirit, however, is not a
world-spirit. He does not believe in an All-Spirit, but in a
plurality of eternal spirits, fire-spirits, wind-spirits,
plant-spirits, etc.]
[Footnote 15: Compare Colebrooke's _Essays_, vol. II. pp.
404, 444, and the Yogaç[=a]stra cited above.]
[Footnote 16: This is not in the earlier form of the vow
(see below).]
[Footnote 17: II. 37 and 41. Although the Brahman ascetic
took the vow not to kill, yet is he permitted to do so for
sacrifice, and he may eat flesh of animals killed by other
animals (Gautama, 3. 31).]
[Footnote 18: _Loc. cit_. III. 37-38. The evening and night
are not times to eat, and for the same reason "The Gods eat
in the morning, the Seers at noon, the Fathers in the
afternoon, the devils at twilight and night" (_ib_. 58). For
at night one might eat a a living thing by mistake.]
[Footnote 19: _Loc. cit_. II. 27.]
[Footnote 20: The pun _m[=a][.m]sa, "Me eat_ will be
hereafter whose _meat_ I eat in this life" (Lanman), shows
that Jain and Brahman believed in a hell where the injured
avenged themselves (Manu, V. 55; HYÇ. III. 26), just as is
related in the Bhrigu story (above).]
[Footnote 21: By intuition or instruction.]
[Footnote 22: _Loc. cit_. I. 15 ff.]
[Footnote 23: _Loc. cit_. 121 ff. Wilson, _Essays_, I. 319,
gives a description of the simple Jain ritual.]
[Footnote 24: Who says "may be."]
[Footnote 25: Mukunda.]
[Footnote 26: This 'keeping _vasso_' is also a Brahmanic
custom, as Bühler has pointed out. But it is said somewhere
that at that season the roads are impossible, so that there
is not so much a conscious copying as a physical necessity
in keeping _vasso_; perhaps also a moral touch, owing to the
increase of life and danger of killing.]
[Footnote 27: In the lives of the Jinas it is said that
Jñ[=a]triputra's (N[=a]taputta's) parents worshipped the
'people's favorite,' P[=a]rçva, and were followers of the
Çramanas (ascetics). In the same work (which contains
nothing further for our purpose) it is said that Arhats,
Cakravarts, Baladevas, and Vasudevas, present, past, and
future, are aristocrats, born in noble families. The
heresies and sectaries certainly claim as much.]
[Footnote 28: [=A]c[=a]r[=a]nga S. ii. 15. We give Jacobi's
translation, as in the verses already cited from this work.]
[Footnote 29: Acting, commanding, consenting, past, present,
or future (Jacobi).]
[Footnote 30: SBE. xxii. Introd. p. xxiv.]
[Footnote 31: JRAS. xx. 279.]
[Footnote 32: See Bühler, the last volume of the
_Epigraphica Indica_, and his other articles in the WZKM. v.
59, 175. Jeypur, according to Williams, is the stronghold of
the Digambara Jains. Compare Thomas, JRAS. ix. 155, _Early
Faith of Açoka_.]
[Footnote 33: The redaction of the Jain canon took place,
according to tradition, in 454 or 467 A.D. (possibly 527).
"The origin of the extant Jaina literature cannot be placed
earlier than about 300 B.C." (Jacobi, Introduction to _Jain
S[=u]tras_, pp. xxxvii, xliii). The present Angas
('divisions') were preceded by P[=u]rvas, of which there are
said to have been at first fourteen. On the number of the
scriptures see Weber, _loc. cit_.]
[Footnote 34: Williams, _loc. cit._ The prayer-formula is:
'Reverence to Arhats, saints, teachers, subteachers, and all
good men.']
[Footnote 35: 'A place which is appropriated for the
reception of old, worn-out, lame, or disabled animals. At
that time (1823) they chiefly consisted of buffaloes and
cows, but there were also goats and sheep, and even cocks
and hens,' and also 'hosts of vermin.']
[Footnote 36: JRAS. 1834, p. 96. The town was taxed to
provide the food for the rats.]
[Footnote 37: Because the Jains have reverted to idolatry,
demonology, and man-worship. But at the outset they appear
to have had two great principles, one, that there is no
divine power higher than man; the other, that all life is
sacred. One of these is now practically given up, and the
other was always taken too seriously.]
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