BL 1010.S3 V. Siddh anta. Gaina s utras ^A THE i i i SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST [45] Bonbon HENRY FROWDE Oxford Univet-sity Press Warehouse AmExN Corner. E.C.
MACMILLAN & CO., 66 FIFTH AVENUE THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST TRANSLATED BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY F. MAX MULLER VOL. XLV Oxfotb Cjcforb PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS UY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY GAINA SOTRAS TRANSLATED FROM PRAK/'/T BY HERMANN JACOBI PART II THE UTTARADHYAYANA SUTRA THE St)TRAK/?/TANGA SUTRA \^All rights reserved ] CONTENTS.
Lecture 1. On discipline (especially for pupils).. i 2. On troubles. (About the twenty-two things that cause trouble to monks)...8 3. The four requisites (for the attainment of 4. Impurity. (Carefulness required for obtaining the end) ^8 5. Death against (and with) one's will.. 20 6. The false ascetic. (Wrong conduct leads to perdition, right conduct to salvation). 24 7. The parable of the ram, &c. (illustrative of the folly of the sinner who misses his chance of reaching a more exalted state of existence). • • • • • 27 8. Kapila's verses (in praise of good conduct). 31 9. The Pravra^ya of king Nami. (A dialogue between him and Indra who advised him to retain the royalty).. • • 35 10. The leaf of the tree. (A sermon by Mahavira on the punishment of the sinner and the reward of the righteous)...4 ^ 11. The very learned (monk; his virtues and his over a Brahman, whom he converts). 5° 13. ^itra and Sambhflta. (A dialogue on the vanity of worldly pleasures).. • 56 14. Ishukara. (A legend, illustrating the excellence of a monastic hfe).. • 61 VI 11 CONTENTS.
Lecture 15. The true monk; (how he should conduct himself)...69 „ 16. The ten conditions of perfect chastity.. 73 ,, 17. The bad -Sramawa; (what a monk should avoid) 77 ,, 18. Sa;7^aya. (King S. turned monk; he preaches that the state of a monk is preferable to that of a king; illustrations from Gaina history). 80 19. The son of Mr/ga. (On the punishment in the hells) 88 „ 20. The great duty of the Nirgranthas. (A dialogue between king Srenika. and a monk on the happiness obtained by righteousness. The bad monk is lost)...100 21. Samudrapala, (turned monk. On the duties of a monk)...108 22. Rathanemi. (The renunciationofArish/anemi; his wife Ra^imati exhorts Rathanemi). 112 23. Kesi and Gautama. (The followers of Pari-va are brought over to the church of Mahavira)...119 24. The Samitis (and the Guptis)...129 25. The true sacrifice. (G^ayaghosha, the monk, converts Vi^ayaghosha, the Brahman). 136 26. The correct behaviour (of monks during the several parts of day and night).. 142 27. The bad bullocks (compared to bad pupils by Garga) 149 28. The road to final deliverance. (On the fundamental principles of (rainism). 152 29. The exertion in righteousness. (On the seventy- three articles necessary for reaching perfection)...158 30. The road of penance. (On external and internal austerities)...174 31. Mode of life. (A list of articles of the G^aina faith according to the number of their subdivisions)...180 32. The causes of carelessness; (what excites the passions and produces Karman).. 184 CONTENTS.
IX Lf.cture 33. The nature of Kaiman, (and the subdivisions of it) 34. On Le^ya „ 35. The houseless monk. (The chief duties of a monk)...„ 36. On Kving beings and things without Hfe. (The contents of this Lecture are detailed in note 2, pp. 206, 207)...
SUTRAK7?/TANGA.
FIRST BOOK.
Lecture 1. The doctrine. (On some heretical doctrines) 235-248 Chapter 3. (Paura«ikas,vv. 6-8; the followers Chapter 4. (Some popular beliefs, vv. 6, 7. Conclusion).
(how to lead a 249-261 • 257 261-271 2. The destruction of Karman holy life) Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3.
3. The knowledge of troubles Chapter I. (A monk encounters many difficulties)...Chapter 2. (He is tempted back to domestic life) Chapter 3. (He easily desponds. The opinion refuted that a monk should not provide a sick brother with food)...CONTENTS.
PAGE Lecture 3. Chapter 4. (Several objections removed). 268 4. Knowledge of women...271-278 Chapter 1. (How women tempt a monk). 271 Chapter 2. (How they treat him afterwards). 275 5. Description of the hells...279-286 Chapter 1...279 Chapter 2...283 6. Praise of Mahavira...287 7. Description of the wicked. (No living beings should be destroyed; no merit in ablutions and tending the sacrificial fire. A monk should not be selfish)...292 8. On exertion. (Exertion not leading to works recommended)...297 9. The Law. (What a monk should abstain from)...301 10. Carefulness. (Some more injunctions and prohibitions)...306 IL The Path. (The same subject continued and concluded)..,...310 12. The creed. (On the four heresies: Agnosticism, v. 2; Vinayavada, v. 3; Akriyavada, vv. 4-10: Kriyavada, v. 11 if.).. 315 13. The real truth. (Some duties of a pious monk)...320 14. The Nirgrantha. (The same subject continued)...,324 15. The Yamakas. (Miscellaneous topics treated in artificial verses)...329 16. The song. (On the virtues of a true monk). 333 SECOND BOOK.
Lecture 1. The Lotus. (The parable of the Lotus. The jMaterialists, § 14 ff. Another school of Materialists and the forerunners of the Vaijeshikas, § 20 ft'. The Vedantins, § 25 flf. The fatalists, § 30 flf. Exhortation to follow the true Law, § 35 ff.)...335 CONTENTS. XI Lecture 2. On activity. (The twelve kinds of committing sin, and sinless actions. Some wicked practices described, § 25 ff. Some more wicked practices, § 60 ff. Right conduct of monks, § 69 ff.; of laymen, § 75 ff. Refutation of the 363 heretical philosophical schools, § 79 ff. Conclusion)...3oB „ 3. Knowledge of food. (On the generation of living beings)...3^8 „ 4. Renunciation of activity. (An action is sinful though it be done unconsciously).. 398 ,, 5. Freedom from error; (what should be maintained and what not)...4C>5 ,, 6. Ardraka; (his dispute with Gojala, a Buddhist, a Vedic priest, a Vedantin, and a Hastitapasa)...• 'I09 „ 7. Nalanda. (Udaka, a follower of Par^va, is converted by Gautama)...-4^9 Index of Names and Subjects.. • • -437 Index of Sanskrit and Vkakrit Words.. • 443 Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the Translations of the Sacred Books of the East. 453 INTRODUCTION Ten years have elapsed since the first part of my translation of 6^aina Sutras appeared. During that decennium many and very important additions to our knowledge of Cainism and its history have been made by a small number of excellent scholars. The text of the canonical books, together with good commentaries in Sanskrit and Guzerati, has been made accessible in fair editions published by native scholars in India. Critical editions of two of them have been published by Professors Leumann ^ and Hoernle ^; and the latter scholar has added a careful translation and ample illustrations to his edition of the text. A general survey of the whole 6'aina literature has been given by Professor Weber in his catalogue of the Berlin Manuscripts ^ and in his learned treatise ^ on the sacred literature of the Cainas. The development of 6^aina learning and science has been studied by Professor Leumann, and some 6'aina legends and their relations to those of the Brahmans and Buddhists have been investigated by the same scholar ^. An important document for our knowledge of the old history of the 5vetambara sect has been edited 1 Das Aupapatika Sfitra, in the Abhandlnngen fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. viii; and Da^avaikalika Sutra iind Niryukti, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol, xlvi.
^ The Uvasaga Dasao: (in the Bibliotheca Indica"), vol. i. Text and Commentary, Calcutta, 1S90; vol. ii. Translation, 18SS.
* In the Indische Studien, vol. xvi, p. 211 ff., and xvii, p. i ff; translated in the Indian Antiquary and edited separately, Bombay, 1893.
^ In the Actes du VI Congres International des Orientalistes, section Arienne, p. 469 ff., in the 5th and 6th vols, of the Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, and in the 4Sth vol. of the Journal of the (Jerman Oriental Society.
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by myself^, and the history of some of their Ga^/^/^as has been made known from their hsts of teachers by Hoernle and Klatt. The last-named scholar, whom we have all but lost by this time, has prepared a biographical dictionary of all 6^aina writers and historical persons, and he has issued specimens of this great Onomasticon, while Hofrat Biihler has written a detailed biography of the famous encyclopaedist Hemay^andra ^. The same scholar has deciphered the ancient inscriptions, and discussed the sculptures excavated by Dr. Flihrer at Mathura ^, and the important inscriptions at Sra.va.ua. Be/go/a have been edited by Mr. Lewis Rice ^; M. A. Earth has reviewed our knowledge of 6'ainism ^, and likewise Biihler in a short paper ^. Lastly Bhandarkar has given a most valuable sketch of the whole of Cainism '^. All these additions to our knowledge of Cainism (and I have but mentioned the most remarkable ones) have shed so much clear light on the whole subject that little room is left now for mere guesswork, and the true historical and philological method can be applied to all its parts. Still some of the principal problems require elucidation, while the proffered solution of others is not accepted by all scholars. I, therefore, gladly avail myself of this opportunity to discuss some of the disputed points, for the settling of which the works translated in this volume offer valuable materials.
It is now admitted by all that Nataputta (Cwatr/putra), who is commonly called Mahavira or Vardhamana, was a contemporary of Buddha; and that the Niga;////as ® ^ The Pnii^ish/apaivan by Hema^anclra, Bibliotheca Indica.
^ Denkschiiften der philos.-histor. Classe der kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. xxxvii, p. 171 ff.
^ Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vols, ii and iii. Epigraphia Indica, vols, i and ii.
* Bangalore, 1889.
'' The Religions of India. Bulletin des Religions de ITnde, 1889-94.
'' IJber die indische Secte der Jaina. Wien, 1887 ■^ Report for 1883-84.
' Niga^/Z/a is apparently the original form of the word, since it is thus spellefl in the Ajoka inscription, in Pali, and occasionally by the Cainas. though the phonetic laws of all three idioms would have given preference to the form niggantha, the more frequent spelling in Caina works.
INTRODUCTION. XV INTRODUCTION. XV (Nirgranthas), now better known under the name of 6^ainas or Arhatas, already existed as an important sect at the time when the Buddhist church was being founded. But it is still open to doubt whether the religion of the early Nirgranthas was essentially the same as that taught in the canonical and other books of the present 6^ainas, or underwent a great change up to the time of the composition of the Siddhanta. In order to come nearer the solution of this question, it may be desirable to collect from the published Buddhist works, as the oldest witnesses we can summon, all available information about the Niga/////as, their doctrines and religious practices.
In the Anguttara Nikaya, III, 74, a learned prince of the lAkkh2Lv\s, of Vai^ali;, Abhaya \ gives the following account of some Niga«///a doctrines: ' The Niga;^///a Nataputta, sir, v.'ho knows and sees all things, who claims perfect knowledge and faith (in the following terms): " walking and standing, sleeping or waking, I am always possessed of perfect knowledge and faith;" teaches the annihilation by austerities of the old Karman, and the prevention by inactivity of new Karman. When Karman ceases, misery ceases; when misery ceases, perception ceases; when perception ceases, every misery will come to an end. In this way a man is saved by pure annihilation of sin (ni^ara) which is really effective.'
The Gaina counterpart to these tenets can be collected from the Uttar^dhyayana XXIX. ' By austerities he cuts off Karman,' § 27. 'By renouncing activity he obtains inactivity; by ceasing to act he acquires no new Karman, and destroys the Karman he had acquired before,' ^ o,"]. The last stages in this process are fully described in §§ 71, 1 There are apparently two persons of this name. The other Abhaya, a son of king ^'re^zika, was a patron of the Cainas, and is frequently mentioned in their legends and in the canonical books. In the Ma^o-^/nma Nikaya 58 (Abhayakumara Sutta) it is related that the Niga;^//^a Nataputta made him engage in a disputation with Buddha. The question was so adroitly framed that whether the answer was Yes or No, it involved Buddha in self-contradiction. But the plan did not suc^xed, and Abhaya was converted by Buddha. There is nothing in this account to elucidate the doctrines of Nataputta.
xvi GAINA sOtRAS.
72. And again, in XXXII, v. 7, we read: ' Karman is the root of birth and death, and birth and death they call misery.' The nearly identical verses 34, 47, 60, 73, 86, 99 may be thus condensed: ' But a man who is indifferent to the object of the senses, and to the feelings of the mind [this comes nearest to the Buddhist vedana, perception], is free from sorrows; though still in the Saws^ra, he is not afflicted by that long succession of pains, just as the leaf of the Lotus (is not moistened) by water.'
The above assertion that Nataputta claimed the possession of perfect knowledge and faith, requires no further proof; for it is one of the fundamental dogmas of the G^ainas.
Another piece of information about Niga«///a doctrines may be gathered from the Mahavagga VI, 31 (S. B. E., vol. xvii, p. 108 ff.) There a story is told of Siha \ the general of the 'Likk/iavis, who was a lay disciple of Nataputta. He wanted to pay the Buddha a visit; but Nataputta tried to dissuade him from it, because the Niga;///^as held the Kriyavada, while the Buddha taught the Akriyavada. Siha, however, setting his master's prohibition at nought, went to the Buddha on his own account, and was, of course, converted by him. Now the statement that the Niga/////as embraced the Kriyavada is borne out by our texts; for in the Sutrakr/tariga I, 12, 21, below^ p. 319, it is said that a perfect ascetic ' is entitled to expound the Kriyavada; ' and this doctrine is thus expressed in the A-^aranga Sutra I, i, i, 4 (part i, p. 2): 'He believes in soul, believes in the world, believes in reward, believes in action (believed to be our own doing in such judgments as these): " I did it; " "I shall cause another to do it; " " I shall allow another to do it.'" ' Another lay disciple of Mahavira, converted by the Buddha, was Upali. As narrated in the Ma^/dma Nikaya 56, he ventured upon a dispute with him whether the sins of the mind are heaviest, as the Buddha teaches, or the ^ The name.Siha occurs in Ihe Bhagavati (Calcutta edition, p. 1267, see Hoernle, Uvasaga Dasao Appendix, p. 10) as that of a disciple of Mahavira; but as he was a moni:, he cannot be identified with his namesake in the Mahavagga.
INTRODUCTION. XVll sins of the body, as the Niga;///^a Nataputta contends. In the beginning of the discourse UpaH states that his master uses the term danda., punishment, for what is commonly j"" called kamma, deed, act. This is true, though not quite to the letter; for the word kamma occurs also in the 6'aina Sutras in that sense. The term dan da, however, is at least as frequently used. Thus, in the Sutrakr/tanga II, 2, p. 357 ff., the thirteen kinds of ' committing sins ' are treated of, and in the first five cases the word which I have translated 'committing sins' is in the original dajidasamada;/e, and in the remaining cases kiriya//^a;ze, i.e. kriyasthana.
The Niga;///^a Upali goes on to explain that there are three dawrtfas, the danda of body, that of speech, and that of mind. This agrees with the 6^aina doctrine expressed in nearly the same words in the Sthanahga Sutra, 3rd uddej-aka (see Indian Antiquary, IX, p. 159).
The second statement of Upali, that the Niga«///as consider sins of the body more important than sins of the mind, is in perfect harmony with G'aina views. For in the Sutrakrztahga II, 4, p. 398 ff., the question is discussed whether sins may be committed unconsciously, and it is boldly answered in the affirmative (compare note 6, p. 399); and in the Sixth Lecture of the same book (p. 414) the Buddhists are severely ridiculed for maintaining that it depends on the intention of the man whether a deed of his be a sin or not.
In the Ahguttara Nikaya III, 70, 3, some practices of Nigaw/Z-a laymen are discussed. I translate the passage thus: ' O Visakh^, there is a class of Sama;/as who are called Niga7^//^as. They exhort a Savaka thus: " Well, sir, you must desist from doing injury to beings in the East beyond a yq^ana from here, or to those in the West, North, South, always beyond a yq^ana from here." In this way they enjoin tenderness by making him spare some living beings; in this way they enjoin cruelty by making him not spare other living beings.' It is not difficult to recognise under these words the Digvirati vow of the 6^ainas, which [45] b XV) 11 GAINA SUTRAS.
consists in laying down the limits beyond which one shall not travel nor do business in the different directions. A man who keeps this vow cannot, of course, do any harm to beings beyond the limits within which he is obliged to keep. This is so distorted by the hostile sect as to lay the rule under discussion open to blame. We cannot expect one sect to give a fair and honest exposition of the tenets of their opponents; it is but natural that they should put them in such a form as to make the objections to be raised against them all the better applicable. The 6^ainas were not a whit better in this respect than the Bauddhas, and they have retorted upon them in the same way; witness their misrepresentation of the Buddhist idea that a deed becomes a sin only through the sinful intention of the doer, in a passage in the present volume, p. 414, v. 36 ff., where the sound principle of the Buddhists is ridiculed by applying it to a fictitious and almost absurd case.
The passage in the Ahguttara Nikaya, which we have just discussed, goes on as follows: ' On the Uposatha "day they exhort a Savaka thus: " Well, sir, take off all your clothes and declare: I belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to me." Now his parents know him to be their son, and he knows them to be his parents. His son or wife know him to be their father or husband, and he knows them to be his son or wife. His slaves and servants know him to be their master, and he knows them to be his slaves and servants. Therefore (the Niga;////as) make him use lying speech at the time when he makes the above declarations. On this account I charge him with lying speech. After the lapse of that night he enjoys pleasures (by means of things) that were not freely given. On this account I charge him with taking of what is not freely given.'
According to this statement, the duties of a Niga/^Z/^a layman became, during the Uposatha days, equal to those of a monk; it was on common days only that the difference between layman and monk was realised. This description, however, does not quite agree with the Posaha rules of the (7ainas. Bhandarkar gives the following definition of Posaha INTRODUCTION. XIX INTRODUCTION. XIX according to the Tattvarthasaradipika, which agrees with what we know about it from other sources: ' Posaha, i.e. to observe a fast or eat once only or one dish only on the two holy days (the eighth and the fourteenth of each fortnight), after having given up bathing, unguents, ornaments, company of women; odours, incense, lights, &c., and assumed renunciation as an ornament.' Though the Posaha observances of the present 6^ainas are apparently more severe than those of the Buddhists, still they fall short of the above description of the Niga;///^a rules; for a Caina layman does not, to my knowledge, take off his clothes during the Posaha days, though he discards all ornaments and every kind of luxury; nor must he pronounce any formula of renunciation similar to that which the monks utter on entering the order. Therefore, unless the Buddhist account contains some mistake or a gross misstatement, it would appear that the G^ainas have abated somewhat in their rigidity with regard to the duties of laymen.
Buddhaghosa, in his commentary on the Brahma^ala Sutta, Digha Nikaya I, 2, 38^, mentions the Niga«///as as holding the opinion, discussed in the text, that the soul has no colour, in contradistinction to the A^ivikas, who divide mankind into six classes according to the colour of the A A Atman; both Niga;///^as and A^ivikas, however, agree in maintaining that the soul continues to exist after death and is free from ailments (arogo). Whatever may be the exact meaning of the last expression, it is clear that the above description squares with the opinions of the 6^ainas about the nature of the soul, as described below, p. 173 f.
In another passage (I.e. p. 168) Buddhaghosa says that Niga;////a Nataputta considers cold water to be possessed of life (so kira sitodake sattasa«/7i hoti), for which reason he does not use it. This doctrine of the Cainas is so generally known that I need not bring forward any quotation from the Sutras in support of its genuineness.
This is nearly all the information on the doctrines of the ^ Sumangala Vilasini, p. 119 of the Pali Text Society edition.
b 2 XX GAINA SUTRAS.
ancient NigawZ/ms which I have been able to gather from the PaH texts. Though it is less than we desire, its value is not to be underrated. For with one exception all the doctrines and usages of the ancient Niga7////as mentioned agree with those of the present 6^ainas, and they comprise some of the fundamental ideas of 6"ainisni. It is therefore not probable that the doctrines of the G"ainas have undergone a great change in the interval between the quoted Buddhist records and the composition of the 6'aina canon. I have purposely deferred the discussion of the classical passage on the doctrines of Niga;///^a Nataputta, because it leads us to a new line of inquiry. The passage in question occurs in the Sama;7;zaphala Sutta of the Digha Nikaya ^ I translate it in accordance with Buddhaghosa's comment in the Sumahgala Vilasini. ' Here, great king, a Niga;////a is protected by restraint in four directions (>^atuy amasawzvarasa wvu 1 6). How, great king, is a Nigauf/ia. protected by restraint in four directions? Here, great king, a Nigau^/ia. abstains from all (cold) water, he abstains from all bad deeds, by abstinence from all bad deeds he is free from sins, he realises abstinence from all bad deeds.
In this way, great king, a Niga/////a is protected by restraint in four directions. And, great king, because he is thus protected, the Niga7////a Nataputta's soul is exalted, is restrained, is well settled 2. '^ — This is, certainly, not an accurate nor an exhaustive description of the Gains, creed, though it contains nothing alien from it, and successfully imitates the language of the 6"aina Sutras. As I have already explained elsewhere 2, I think the term /^atuyamasa/z/varasawvuto has been misunderstood not only by the commentator, but also by the author of the text. For ^ Page 57 of the edition in the Pali Text Society.
^ The translations of Gogerly and of Burnouf in Grimblot, Sept Siittas Palis, were made without the help of a commentary, and may, therefore, be passed by. It is, however, open to doubt whether Bnddhaghosa has drawn his information from genuine tradition, or had to rely on conjectures of his o\\ n.
^ See my paper, ' On Mahavira and his Predecessors.' in the Indian Antiquary, IX, 158 ff., where some of the above problems have been treated.
INTRODUCTION. XXI the Pali /^atuyama is equivalent to the Pr^krzt /^-atu^-^ama, a well-known 6"aina term which denotes the four vows of Parj-va in contradistinction to the five vows {pa.uk a mahavvaya) of Mahavira. Mere, then, the Buddhists, I suppose, have made a mistake in ascribing to Nataputta Mahavira a doctrine which properly belonged to his predecessor Parj-va. This is a significant mistake; for the Buddhists could not have used the above term as descriptive of the Nigaw///a creed unless they had heard it from followers of Parjva, and they would not have used it if the reforms of Mahavira had already been generally adopted by the Niga;////as at the time of the Buddha. I, therefore, look on this blunder of the Buddhists as a proof for the correctness of the 6'aina tradition, that followers of Parj-va actually existed at the time of Mahavira.
Before following up this line of inquiry, I have to call attention to another significant blunder of the Buddhists: they call Nataputta an Aggivesana, i.e. Agnivai^-y^yana; according to the 6^ainas, however, he was a Kai^yapa, and we may credit them in such particulars about their own Tirthakara. But Sudharman, his chief disciple, who in the Sutras is made the expounder of his creed, was an Agnivaii-yayana, and as he played a prominent part in the propagation of the Caina religion, the disciple may often have been confounded by outsiders with the master, so that the Gotra of the former was erroneously assigned to the latter. Thus by a double blunder the Buddhists attest the existence of Mahavira's predecessor Parj-va and of his chief disciple Sudharman.
That Parj-va was a historical person, is now admitted by all as very probable; indeed, his followers, especially Kej-i\ who seems to have been the leader of the sect at the time of Mahavira, are frequently mentioned in Caina Sutras in such a matter-of-fact way, as to give us no reason for doubting the authenticity of those records. The legend in ' In the RiVapraJTii Pari-va has a discussion with i<ing Paesi and converts him, see Actes du VI Coagres International des Orieatalistcs, vol. iii, p. 490 ff.
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the Uttaradhyayana, Lecture XXIII, how the union of the old and the new church was effected, is of much interest in this respect. Kesi and Gautama, the representatives and leaders of the two branches of the 6"aina church, both at the head of their pupils, meet in a park near 5ravasti; the differences in their creed concerning the number of great vows, and the use or disuse of clothes are explained away without further discussion, and full harmony with regard to the fundamental ethical ideas is satisfactorily established by the readiness with which allegorical expressions of the one speaker are understood and explained by the other. There seems to have been some estrangement, but no hostility between the two branches of the church; and though the members of the older branch invariably are made to adopt the Law of Mahavira, ' which enjoins five vows,' it may be imagined that they continued in some of their old practices, especially with regard to the use of clothes, which Mahavira had abandoned. On this assumption we can account for the division of the church in 5vetambaras and Digambaras, about the origin of which both sects have contradictory legends^. There was apparently no sudden rupture; but an original diversity (such as e. g. subsists now between the several Gakk/ias of the ^vetambaras) ripened into division, and in the end brought about the great schism.
The records in the Buddhist Canon are not repugnant to our views about the existence of the Niga;///^as before Nataputta; for the Nigaw/Z/as must have been an important sect at the time when Buddhism took its rise. This may be inferred from the fact that they are so frequently mentioned in the Pi/akas as opponents or converts of Buddha and his disciples; and as it is nowhere said or even merely implied that the Niga«//^as were a newly-founded sect, we may conclude that they had already existed a considerable time before the advent of the Buddha. This conclusion is supported by another fact. Makkhali Gosala, a contemporary 1 See my paper on the origin of the 6'vetambara and Digambara sects in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xxxviii, p. i ff.
INTRODUCTION. XXIII of Buddha and Mahavini, divided mankind into six classes K Of these, according to Buddhaghosa -, the third class contains the Niga;////as. Gosala probably would not have ranked them as a separate, i. e. fundamental subdivision of mankind, if they had only recently come into existence. He must have looked upon them as a very important, and at the same time, an old sect, in the same way in which, in my opinion, the early Buddhists looked upon them. As a last argument in favour of my theory I may mention that in the Ma^//ima Nikaya ^^, a disputation between the Buddha and Sa,^^aka, the son of a Niga/7/Z'a, is narrated. Sa/('/^aka is not a Niga;////a himself, as he boasts of having vanquished Nataputta in disputation ^, and, moreover, the tenets he defends are not those of the 6^ainas. Now when a famous controversialist, whose father was a Niga;////a, was a contemporary of the Buddha_, the Niga;////as can scarcely have been a sect founded during Buddha's life.
Let us now confront the records of the 6^ainas about the philosophical doctrines of heretics, which they had to combat, with such as the Buddhists describe. In the Sutrakr/tanga II, T, 15 (p. 339 f.) and 21 f (p. 343) two materialistic theories which have much in common are spoken of The first passage treats of the opinion of those who contend that the body and the soul are one and the same thing; the second passage is concerned with the doctrine that the five elements are eternal and constitute everything. The adherents of either philosophy maintain that it is no sin to kill living beings. Similar opinions are^ in the Simauua.-phala Sutta, ascribed to Pura;/a Kassapa and A^ita Kesakambali. The former denies that there is such a thing as sin or merit. A^ita Kesakambali holds that nothing real ^ Sama/?/?aphala Sutta, Digha Nikaya II, 20.
^ Siunangala Vilasini, p. 162. Buddhaghosa expressly states that Gosala reckoned the NigawMas lower than his own lay disciples, who form the fourth class. — As Buddhaghosa does not take umbrage at Gosala's reckoning the Bhikkhus still lower, it is clear that he did not identify the Bhikkhus with the Buddhist monks.
^ See p. 250 of the Pali Text Society edition.
Xxiv GAINA stjTRAS.
corresponds to the current transcendental ideas. He moreover maintains: 'Man (puriso) consists of the four elements; when he dies, earth returns to earth, water to water, fire to fire, wind to wind, and the organs of sense merge into air (or space) ^. Four bearers with the hearse carry the corpse to the place of cremation (or, while it is burned) they make lamentations; the dove-coloured bones remain, the offerings are reduced to ashes.' The last passage recurs with few alterations in the Sutrakrztanga, p. 340: ' Other men carry the corpse away to burn it. When it has been consumed by fire, only dove-coloured bones remain, and the four bearers return with the hearse to their village".'
In connection with the second materialistic system (p. 343, § 22, and p. 237 f., vv. 15, 16) a variety of it is mentioned, which adds the permanent Atman or soul as a sixth to the five permanent elements. This seems to have been a primitive or a popular form of the philosophy which we now know under the name of Vaij-eshika. To this school of philosophy we must perhaps assign Pakudha KaX'^'ayana of Buddhist record. He maintained " that there are seven eternal, unchangeable, mutually independent things: the four elements, pleasure, pain, and the soul. As they have no influence upon one another, it is impossible to do any real harm to anybody. I confess that to maintain the eternal existence of pleasure and pain (sukha and dukkha) and to deny their influence on the soul, seems to me absurd; but the Buddhists have perhaps misstated the original tenets. At any rate, the views of PakudhaKa/^Hyana ^ Aka.i'a; it is not reckoned as a fifth element in the Buddliist account, but it is so in that of the G^ainas, see below, p. 343, and p. 237, verse 15. This is a verbal, rather than a material difference.
^ I put here the original texts side by side so that their likeness may be more obvious: padani pa«/5apenti, kapotakani a.tth\n\ asandipa/z^-ama purisa atthini bhavanti, bhassantashutiyo. gamaw paX'/C-agaZ'/'/^anti.
Loc. cit., p. =6.
INTRODUCTION. XXV come under the denomination of Akriyavada; and in this they dififer from the Vaij-eshika proper, which is a Kriyavada system. As these two terms are frequently used both by Buddhists and 6^ainas, it will not be amiss to define them more accurately. Kriyivada is the doctrine which teaches that the soul acts or is affected by acts. Under this head comes Cainism, and of Brahmanical philosophies Vaij"eshika and Nyaya (which, however, are not expressly quoted in the canonical books of either Buddhists or 6^ainas), and apparently a great many systems of which the names have not been preserved, but the existence of which is implied in our texts. Akriyavada is the doctrine which teaches either that a soul does not exist, or that it does not act or is not affected by acts. Under this subdivision fall the different schools of materialists; of Brahmanical philosophies the Vedanta, Saiikhya, and Yoga; and the Buddhists. Of the latter the doctrines of the Kshaz/ikavadins and the vSunyavadins are alluded to in Sutrakr/tahga I, 14, verses 4 and 7. It may be mentioned here that the Vedantists or their opinions are frequently mentioned in the Siddhanta; in the Sutrakr/tanga the Vedanta is the third heresy described in the First Lecture of the Second Book, p. 344; it is also adverted to in the Sixth Lecture, p. 417. But as no professor of it was among the six heretical teachers (titthiya) of the Buddhists, we may pass them over here ^.