unaccompanied by the other, viz. itihasa in Satap. XI. i. 6. 9, and purāņa in Atharvaveda, XI. vii. 24. It is also of importance to note the position which the two terms occupy in the lists. It will be seen that in many cases they come immediately after the four Vedas, and it is, therefore, by no means surprising that in Chhand. Up. (VII. i. 2 and 4, ii. 1, vii. 1) the Itihasapurāņa is actually spoken of as the fifth Veda (itihāsapurāṇaḥ pañchamo vedānāṁ vedaḥ). To these indisputable evidences from Vedic texts, conclusively attesting the existence of a collection of itihasas, or purānus, entitled Itihāsa or Purana and reckoned among the Vedas, there has recently been added a most significant datum in the discovery of Kautilya's Arthasastra, which shows that this Itihasaveda was still extant about the beginning of the 3rd cent. B. C.1 The relevant passage is i. 3 (7. 9 ff.):2 'The triad Sama, Rg, and Yajur Vedas, the Atharvaveda, and the Itihasaveda (are) Vedas.' In this connexion we may call attention also to a passage in the introduction of the Mahabhâşya, viz. i. 9. 21 ff. [ed. F. Kielhorn, Bombay, 1892]: The four vedas with their ancillary literature and esoterism [i.e. the Upaniṣads], divided in many ways "the dialogue," "the itihasa," ""the purana," "the healing art,"-of such extent is the scope of application of word (sound)'; as also to the terms aitihasika and pauraņika applied respectively to those who knew or studied the Itihasa or the Purana.s Curiously enough, we find that in the Itihasa. purāna par excellence, i.e. the Mahabharata, the title of the fifth Veda' is given to Akhyāna, while the Mahabharata itself becomes the representative of this fifth Veda; cf., e.g., III. lviii. 9 (2247): 'all four vedas, (and) Akhyāna as the fifth,' and XII. cccxl. 21 (13027): the Vedas... the Mahabharata as the fifth.' Nevertheless, we also find in the Mahabhārata numerous references to Itihasa and Purana as ancient works that were studied together with the Vedas." 6 The number of such passages, which, of course, are far from having all the same historical valuethe Mahabharata in its present shape having been a growth of centuries-might easily be increased; but they are quite sufficient to show that the ancient Itihasaveda or Itihasapurāṇaveda has left distinct traces of its existence in the great epic. The Mahabharata, in fact, must very gradually have come to take the place of that fifth Veda,' and the process may quite readily be explained on the assumption that the Itihasapurāna literature was to a large extent incorporated by degrees in the epic. The source of these stories is often shown by the terms itihāsa, purāņa, itihāsapurātana, and the like." | dom, however, for the chief characteristic of these Purānas is their sectarian spirit, which was certainly absent from the ancient Purana.1 The present writer is of opinion that remains of the ancient Itihāsapurāna can be traced elsewhere in Skr. literature. Materials derived from that collection must be recognized above all in the myths and legends of the Brahmanas, especially in such as occur in the Arthavada (explanatory) parts and are distinguished by form and matter alike from the general context; but they must be recognized also in the shorter mythologico-historical additions of the Brāhmaṇas designed to explain them." From Yaska's Nirukta we learn that there was a Vedic school known as the Aitihasikas-so named because its members made use of 'the Itihasa' in expounding the mantras, and to certain mantras (or sūktas) Yaska attaches short narrative supplements which he designates itihasa or akhyāna. Alike in their subject-matter and in the formulæ with which they are introduced, these remind us of the additions to the Brahmanas just mentioned. Such itihasas are found, further, in the Brhaddevatā, in the Anukramani to the Rigveda, and in the medieval commentaries—e.g., those of Devaraja, Durga, Sadgurusisya, and especially Sayana.* Even these relatively modern texts may preserve, and, as the present writer believes, do really preserve, ancient traditions, for it was an established principle in the exegesis of the mantras that the nidana (primal cause, basis)-if there was onemust be taught first in order to bring out the meaning, and that the usual verbal explanation could be entered upon only after that had been done.5 It is, however, quite another question whether the writers of the Brahmanas and the exegetes of the Veda made a right use of the itihāsas, and whether, above all, they applied them at the proper places, in the exposition of mantras. The present writer is of opinion that the question can be answered only with reference to each individual case. He now holds the view that the ancient Itihasapurana was an independent collection of legends and stories not specially connected with any particular Veda. Even on the hypothesis that there was a general correspondence between Itihāsa and Veda with respect to mythological views and to mythical and legendary ideas, the sagas of the Itihasapurana might still differ very essentially in form from the same sagas in Vedic mantras, and in particular, therefore, from those in the Rigveda. In such cases the employment of an itihasa in the exposition of the mantras could easily prove a dangerous procedure. We may here refer, by way of illustration, to the two specially prominent cases. The story of Sunaḥsepa, which the hoty had to relate to the king at the Rajasuya, is quite formed the arthavada for the añjaḥsava (rapid preparation of Soma) commonly used in the Rajasuya.7 But the Brahmana writer certainly erred in interweaving this saga with all the songs of the Rigveda which are ascribed to Sunaḥsepa, We must now ask what connexion exists between the extensive Purana literature still extant and the ancient Purāṇaveda. We must obviously assume that the ancient Purāṇa was the precursor of the later literary group bearing the same name, and that much of its subject-matter has been pre-appropriately introduced into the Brahmana of the Rigveda, served in the Purāņas known to us. The latter assumption will be especially valid in the case of those passages in which the Purānas agree more or less verbally with one another, or with the Mahabharata, and probably also of those in which the lakṣanas (characteristics) belonging, according to ancient tradition, to the Purana find expression in the extant Purāņas. This occurs very sel1 Cf. Jacobi, p. 954 ff., and 'Über die Echtheit des Kauţiliya' in SBAW, 1912, p. 832 ff. 2 Ib. p. 968. 1 Winternitz, p. 443 f.; Sieg, i. 34. · 2 Sieg, i. 18 ff. 3 Cf. the well-known verse in Väsiş. Dharm. xxvii. 6, Mahabh. 1. i. 267 (260), Väyu Pur. i. 181: by itihasa and purana one should supplement the Veda; the Veda feareth a man with scanty [sacred] learning, lest "this may injure me "'; cf. Sieg, i. 13 ff. 4 Sieg, i. 17 ff. 5 Cf. Durga on Nirukta, i. 5 (п. 58. 21 ff.); Sieg, i. 36. 6 Saunaḥsepam akhyānam; nevertheless a genuine itihasa Sankh. Sr. S. xv. 17-27. 3 Vartt. to Panini, IV. ii. 60; Mahābhäşya, ed. Kielhorn, ii. according to Kautilya's definition; cf. Ait. Br. vii. 13-18, [1883] 284. 8f.; Sieg, i. 30. 4 Sieg, i. 22. 5 Cf. Mahabh. 1. lx. 3 (2210), x. ccx. 19 (7660), cccxxv. 24 f. (12210 f.), cccxlii. 6 (13134), xIII. xxii. 12 (1542), XII. cccxlii. 8 f. (13136 f.), 1. cix. 20 (4355), 11. v. 2 (136). Note also such groups as Mahabh. VIII. xxxiv. 44 ff. (1496 ff.): atharvañgirasau, rgvedāḥ samaredas cha, purāņaṁ cha, itihāsayajurvedau. 7 At the royal inaugural sacrifice the original victim had been a man, who, however, was released from the stake by the gods themselves; and the consecration was thereafter performed without a victim or any other sacrifice, i.e. the añjaḥsava was resorted to. Cf. Sieg, i. 19, note 2., What is further said in the saga regarding the adoption of Sunaḥsepa by Visvamitra (a splendid example of one or more Itihasasuktas with connecting prose) was in all likelihood designed merely to show what became of the liberated victim. since the story of Sunahsepa's being bound to and delivered ritual dramas. A. B. Keith argues that it is impossible to obtain really cogent evidence for either of the theories. He says that in the ancient Vedic literature there is no trace whatever of the knowledge of such a prose-poetic akhyāna as Oldenberg's theory requires, but there is likewise no trace of a knowledge of dramatic responsive songs at sacrificial feasts, or of ritual dramas, though, were the hypotheses of Hertel and von Schroeder sound, both types would certainly occur in the ritual texts of the Vedas. Keith's conclusion, accordingly, is that no explanation yielding a solution in all respects satisfactory has as yet been discovered. Winternitz adopts a middle course between the two views, advocating the theory that the dialogue songs of the Rigveda are not all to be explained in It may be observed, finally, that the connexion the same way. Some of them, he holds, are ballads, between the Vedic sūkta and the itihasa is still a in which everything is told in versified speeches, subject of dispute in Vedic philology. E. Windisch and for which a prose introduction was necessary (Verhandl. der dreiunddreissigsten Philologenver-only in certain cases; some are poetical fragments sammlung in Gera, 1879, p. 23) has advanced the of narrative composed partly of verse and partly conjecture that the song of Pururavas and Urvasi of a prose element that has not survived; while (Rigv. X. xcxv.) is a poem detached from its original others are to be regarded as strophes belonging to narrative context. This idea was further developed by H. Oldenberg, who advocated the theory that a number of Rigveda hymns actually postulated a prose narrative as the connecting medium of the metrical parts, and that such must be recognized as a popular type of story in ancient India-the type in which verses were set in a prose framework in favourite passages of a work, and especially in passages containing speeches and the rejoinders to them. For the systematic transmission of such a narrative-Oldenberg calls it akhyāna, on the example of the Saunaḥsepam akhyanam-it sufficed, he holds, to teach and learn the verse parts only, while the prose matrix, the language of which had never been fixed, suffered numberless changes at the hands of successive generations of narrators, or else was lost altogether. In particular, the prose context which later tradition supplies for the akhyāna hymns of the Rigveda is, according to Oldenberg, mere drivel-not genuine tradition at all, but at most worthless quasi-tradition. Oldenberg's theory of the ākhyāna has long enjoyed an all but universal acceptance. Pischel, Geldner, and the present writer have all expressed their agreement with it, except that, in contrast to Oldenberg, they have strongly insisted upon the value of the Indian itihasa tradition for the Rigveda. On the other hand, S. Lévis asserts that the majority of the dialogue hymns in the Rigveda are so lucid in their verse that they cannot have required a story to link the single strophes together; the mere reading of them calls up some sort of dramatic scene. As a matter of fact, Max Müller had thought of a dramatic action in connexion with Rigv. i. 165.7 Independently of both, J. Hertel has rejected The last word on the subject, so far, has been spoken by K. F. Geldner, who, thus coming near to Hertel's views, has tried to solve the problem by regarding the hymns in question as ballads in the wider sense in which Goethe has defined the ballad. These ballads require no connecting prose, but explain themselves, as the subject used by the poet is not a free invention, but is taken from some well-known myth. Geldner's hypothesis is most attractive, as it allows the explanation of the hymns without calling for connecting prose that, in fact, does not exist. Little, however, is changed by it as regards the chief interesting point in this connexion. For these ballads, like a great number of the Rigvedic mantras, are to be understood only by one who knows the old myths, i.e. the old itihasas, from which their theme is taken. LITERATURE.-This has been sufficiently indicated in the course of the article. E. SIEG. I-TSING.-See under YUAN CHWANG. JACOBITES.-See NESTORIANS. JAGANNĀTH, vulg. JUGGERNAUT (H. Yule and A. C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson2, 466 ff.; Skr. Jagannatha, 'lord of the world,' an epithet of 1 Cf. Geldner, Vedische Studien, i. 243 ff. 2 Cf. Vajasan. Samh. v. 2, etc. J. Hertel's proposal (WZKM xxiii. [1909] 346) to delete the strophe Rigv. x. xcv. 16 in Satap. xI. v. 1. 10 as an interpolation Beems to the present writer a happy solution. 4 See 'Das altindische Akhyana' in ZDMG xxxvii. [1883] 54 ff., 'Akhyanahymnen im Rgveda,' ib. xxxix. [1885] 52 ff.; cf. also the same writer, Die Literatur des alten Indien, Stuttgart, 1903, p. 44 1., and GGA, 1909, p. 66 ff., 1911, p. 441 ff. GGA, 1911, p. 441 f. Le Théâtre indien, Paris, 1890, p. 301 ff. 7 Hymns to the Maruts, London, 1869, p. 1721. 8Der Ursprung des indischen Dramas u. Epos' in WZKM xviii. [1904] 59 ff., 187 ff., Der Suparpadhyaya, ein vedisches Mysterium,' ib. xxiii. [1909] 273 ff. J [Buddha], T. W. Rhys Davids, Origin and Growth of Rel. as illustrated by Ind. Buddhism [HL, 1881], London, 1881, p. 33).-The most famous of the Indian temples and sacred places, situated in the town of Puri, in the modern provinces of Behār and Orissa, on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, lat. 19° 48′ N., long. 85° 49′ E. The present temple was built about A.D. 1100 by Ananta Chodaganga (1076-1147), the most notable king of the E. Ganga dynasty of Kalinga (V. A. Smith, Early Hist., Oxford, 1908, p. 428). It stands in a square enclosure, 652 ft. long by 630 ft. broad, the interior being carefully guarded from profane intrusion by a massive stone wall, 20 ft. high. Within the enclosure stand about 120 temples, including, besides those dedicated to Visnu in his various forms, some 13 dedicated to Siva, and several to his consort, thus illustrating the eclecticism of modern Hinduism. The conical tower of Jagannath's temple rises to a height of 192 ft., and is surmounted by the mystic wheel (chakra) and flag (dhvaja) of Visnu. It contains four chambers: a hall of offerings, where the bulkier oblations are made, only a small quantity of the choicest food being admitted into the inner shrine; a pillared hall for musicians and dancing girls; a hall of audience, where pilgrims assemble to gaze upon the god; and, lastly, the sanctuary itself, which is surmounted by the tower. The image is in triple form, representing Jagannath, beside whom sit his brother Balabhadra, or Balarama, and his sister Subhadra. The theory that this triple image is a perversion or adaptation of the Buddhist Triratna-Buddha, the Law (Dharma), and the Congregation (Sangha) is due to A. Cunningham (The Stupa of Bharhut, London, 1879, p. 112; cf. F. C. Maisey, Sánchi and its Remains, do. 1892, p. 26 n.). It has been connected by other author ities with the trisula, or trident symbol (G. d'Alviella, The Migration of Symbols, Westminster, 1894, p. 254 f.). Waddell, however, remarks: "The Three Holy Ones" are seldom, if ever, concretely represented in Tibet by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; nor have I found such a triad figured in Indian Buddhism, though many writers have alleged the existence of them, without, however, bringing forward any proof' (Buddhism of Tibet, London, 1895, p. 346; but see H. A. Oldfield, Sketches from Nipal, do. 1880, ii. 158 ff., with a drawing of the Triratna). The legends indicate that, under Buddhist and Hindu influences, a rude local fetish' has been adapted to represent Vişnu. One Basu, a fowler, a servant of Jagannath, is said to have found the god, in the form of a blue-stone image, at the foot of a banyan tree (W. W. Hunter, Orissa, i. 89 f.). According to another account, the god appeared in a vision to King Indradyumna, and showed him his image in a block of timber thrown up on the seashore (cf. Farnell, CGS v. 189; E. Thurston, Castes and Tribes, 1909, vi. 129). The workmen failed to fashion the block into an image, till Vişnu appeared as an aged carpenter, whom the king shut up in the temple, intending to keep him there for one and twenty days. But his queen persuaded the king to open the temple doors before the appointed time, and the three images were found fashioned only from the waist upwards, and without hands or feet (W. Ward, The Hindoos, ii. 163). The king was much disconcerted, but prayed to Brahma, and he promised to make the image famous in its present state-obviously an ætiological myth to explain the rudeness or incompleteness of the existing images. Another remarkable legend tells that 'when two new moons occur in Assur [Asarh] (part of June and July), which is said to happen about once in seventeen years, a new idol is always made. A Nim tree (Melia azadir achta] is sought for in the forest, on which no crow or carrion bird has ever perched. It is known to the initiated by certain signs. This is prepared into a proper form by common carpenters, and is then intrusted to certain priests who are protected from all intrusion; the process is a great mystery. One man is selected to take out of the idol a small box containing the spirit, which is conveyed inside the new; and the man who does this is always removed from the world before the end of the year' (Col. Phipps, Mission Register, Dec. 1824, quoted by A. Sterling, Orissa, 122). According to another account, a boy is selected to take out of the breast of the idol a small box containing quicksilver, said to be the spirit, which he transfers to the new image; the boy always dies within a year (Brij Kishore Ghose, The Hist. of Pooree, Cuttack, 1848, p. 18). In another form of the legend the relics enclosed in the image are said to be the bones of Kṛṣṇa. They were found in the forest by some pious person, who was directed by Visnu to form an image of Jagannath, and to place the bones within it. 'Every third year they make a new image, when a Brahman removes the original bones of Krishna from the inside of the old image to that of the new one; on this occasion he covers his eyes, lest he should be struck dead for looking on such sacred relics. The Rajah of Burdwan expended twelve lakh of rupees in a journey to Jugunat'hu, including two lakh paid as a bribe to the Brahmans to permit him to see these bones; but he died six months after for his temerity' (F. Parkes, Wander. ings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque, London, 1850, ii. 383 f.; cf. W. Ward, op. cit. ii. 163). ism. Needless to say, the introduction of human bones into a Vaisnava image is opposed to the rules of that sect and to the usages of Brahmanical HinduThe stories are, in fact, a tradition from Buddhist times, when relics of the Teacher were collected in stūpas and other monuments. "The pilgrimage, the image procession, the suspension of caste prejudices, everything in fact at Puri, is redolent of Buddhism, but of a Buddhism so degraded as hardly to be recognizable by those who know that faith only in its older and purer form (J. Fergusson, Ind. and East. Arch., London, 1899, p. 429). 'The name of Jagannath still draws the faithful from a hundred provinces of India to the Purí sands,' says Hunter (i. 137). This is particularly the case since the abolition of the Pilgrim tax, the collection of which under the orders of a Christian Government aroused active controversy, until it was finally discontinued in A.D. 1840. Hunter gives a vivid picture of the touts who wander through the land collecting pilgrims, of the miseries of the journey before, under British rule, railways were built, sanitation was enforced, and medical treatment was provided. The same writer fully describes the twenty-four local festivals, of which the most important is the Rath Jātrā, which takes place in June or July, when the images are placed in cars and dragged to the country house of the deities. The religious suicides who flung themselves beneath the wheels of the idol chariots have made the name of Jagannāth famous in the Western world. The older narratives were distorted and exaggerated. 'In a closely-packed eager throng of a hundred thousand men labour, and all of them tugging and straining to the utmost and women, many of them unaccustomed to exposure or hard under the blazing tropical sun, deaths must occasionally occur. There have, doubtless, been instances of pilgrims throwing themselves under the wheels in a frenzy of religious excite ment. But such instances have always been rare, and are now unknown. At one time several unhappy people were killed or injured every year, but they were almost invariably cases of accidental trampling. The few suicides that did occur were for the most part cases of diseased and miserable objects who took this means to put themselves out of pain. The official returns now place this beyond doubt. Indeed, nothing could be more opposed to the spirit of Vishnu-worship than self-immolation. Accidental death within the temple renders the whole place unclean. The ritual suddenly stops, and the polluted offerings are hurried away from the sight of the offended god' (Hunter, i. 133 f.). The Only the lowest and most impure castes are now excluded from the temple (ib. i. 135 f.). customs regarding the consecrated food (mahaprasad) are remarkable. This is properly the food cooked for deity or dedicated to the images. The local belief as recorded in the temple annals (Khetra mahatmya) is that it is prepared by the goddess, Mahā Lakṣmi, who gives prosperity. 'He who eats it is absolved from the four cardinal sins of the Hindu faith killing a cow, killing a brahmin, drinking spirits, and committing adultery with a female of a Guru or spiritual likeness between Sankhya and Yoga on the one hand, and Jainism on the other. For in all these systems a dualism of matter and soul is acknowledged; the souls are principally all alike substances (monads) characterized by intelligence, their actual difference being caused by their connexion with matter; matter is, according to Jains and Sankhyas, of indefinite nature, a something that may become anything. These general metaphysical principles, however, are worked out on different fines by the Sankhyas and Jains,1 the difference being still more accentuated by the different origins of these systems. For the Sankhyas, owing allegiideas and modes of thought, while the Jains, ance to the Brāhmans, have adopted Brahmanical being distinctly non-Brahmanical, have worked upon popular notions of a more primitive and cruder character, e.g. animistic ideas. But the pastor. So great is its virtue that it cannot be polluted by the touch of the very lowest caste, and the leavings even of a dog are to be carefully taken up and used. The most tremendous and inexpiable of all crimes is to handle and eat the mahaprasad, without a proper feeling of reverence' (A. Sterling, Orissa, p. 121). Hence there is at Puri a temporary suspension of the rigid tabu which controls the use of food which is not cooked in the regular way, and all castes can eat the sacred food with impunity. Nowadays the priests impress upon the pilgrims the impropriety of dressing food within the holy limits, and provide them from the temple kitchen. This is so sacred that none can be thrown away, and it is often consumed in a state of putrefaction, with the natural result that it causes danger to the public health. It has been suggested that the licence in the use of food at Puri, Pandharpur, and other holy places is due to the spirit-scaring power of the god and his holy place; but the fact of its dedication sufficiently explains the feel-metaphysical principles of Buddhism are of an entirely different character, being moulded by the ing regarding it (BG xx. [1884] 474). Even among fundamental principle of Buddhism, viz. that there a tribe like the Kandhs (q.v.), friendship is sworn is no absolute and permanent Being, or, in other on the holy rice from Puri (Thurston, iií. 409). words, that all things are transitory. NotwithIn 1880 a remarkable attempt was made by a standing the radical difference in their philosophical party of fanatics from Sambalpur, known as notions, Jainism and Buddhism, being originally Kumblipatia, so called because they wear only ropes both orders of monks outside the pale of Brahmade of the leaves (pat) of the kumblī tree (Cock-manism, present some resemblance in outward lospermum gossypium), to destroy the images. In the affray one of the fanatics was killed (L. L. S. O'Malley, Sambalpur Gaz., Nagpur, 1909, i. 59 ff.). LITERATURE.—The most recent and best account of the god, his temple, and worship is by W. W. Hunter, Orissa, London, 1872, i. 81 ff.; see also A. Sterling, Orissa; its Geography, Statistics, History, Religion, and Antiquities, do. 1846, p. 116 ff.; Calcutta Review, x. [1848] 204 ff.; L. Rousselet, India and its Native Princes, London, 1882, p. 606 ff., with drawings of the images and their car; W. Ward, A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, Serampore, 1815, ii. 163 f.; Abu'l-Faḍl, Ain-i-Akbari, tr. H. Blochmann and H. S. Jarrett, Calcutta, 1873-94, ii. 127 ff.; for the cult of Jagannath in Benares, M. A. Sherring, The Sacred City of the Hindus, London, 1868, p. 120 f.; many quotations from older writers in H. Yule and A. C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, London, 1903, p. 466 ff. JAHWEH.-See ISRAEL W. CROOKE. JAINISM.-1. Introductory.-Jainism is a monastic religion which, like Buddhism, denies the authority of the Veda, and is therefore regarded by the Brahmans as heretical. The Jain church consists of the monastic order and the lay community. It is divided into two rival sections, the Svetambaras, or White-robes,' and the Digambaras, or Sky-clad'; they are so called because the monks of the Svetambaras wear white clothes, and those of the Digambaras originally went about stark naked, until the Muhammadans forced them to cover their privities. The dogmatic differences between the two sections are rather trivial (see art. DIGAMBARA); they differ more in conduct, as will be noticed in the course of the article. The interest of Jainism to the student of religion consists in the fact that it goes back to a very early period, and to primitive currents of religious and metaphysical speculation, which gave rise also to the oldest Indian philosophies-Sankhya and Yoga (qq.v.)-and to Buddhism. It shares in the theoretical pessimism of these systems, as also in their practical ideal-liberation. Life in the world, perpetuated by the transmigration of the soul, is essentially bad and painful; therefore it must be our aim to put an end to the Cycle of Births, and this end will be accomplished when we come into possession of right knowledge. In this general principle Jainism agrees with Sankhya, Yoga, and Buddhism; but they differ in their methods of realizing it. In metaphysics there is some general 1 It may be added that, with the exception of Yoga, all these ancient systems are strictly atheistic, i.e. they do not admit an absolute Supreme God; even in Yoga, the Isvara is not the first and only cause of everything existent. VOL. VII.-30 ally have confounded them. It is, therefore, not appearance, so that even Indian writers occasionto be wondered at that some European scholars who became acquainted with Jainism through inadequate samples of Jain literature easily persuaded themselves that it was an offshoot of Buddhism. But it has since been proved beyond doubt that their theory is wrong, and that Jainism is at least as old as Buddhism. For the canonical books of the Buddhists frequently mention the Jains as a rival sect, under their old name Nigantha (Skr. Nirgrantha, common Prakrit Niggantha) and their leader in Buddha's time, Nataputta (Nātaor Natiputta being an epithet of the last prophet of the Jains, Vardhamana Mahavira), and they name the place of the latter's death Pāvā, in agreement with Jain tradition. On the other hand, the canonical books of the Jains mention as contemporaries of Mahavira the same kings as reigned during Buddha's career, and one of the latter's rivals. Thus it is established that Mahavira was a contemporary of Buddha, and probably somewhat older than the latter, who outlived his rival's decease at Pāvā. Mahavira, however, unlike Buddha, was most probably not the founder of the sect which reveres him as their prophet, nor the author of their religion. According to the unanimous Buddhist tradition, Buddha had, under the Bodhi-tree, discovered by intuition the fundamental truths of his religion as it appears throughout his personal work; his first sermons are things ever to be remembered by his followers, as are the doctrines which he then preached. No such traditions are 1 The Sankhyas endeavour to explain, from their dualistio world as well as that of living beings; the Jains, however, are almost exclusively concerned with the latter, and declare that the cause of the material world and of the structure of the principles, purusa and prakrti, the development of the material universe is lokasthiti, primeval disposition' (Tattvärthadhi gama sutra, iii. 6 com.). Sänkhya, probably based on cosmogonic theories contained in the Upanisads, was intended as a philosophic system which in the course of time became the theoretical foundation of popular religion. But Jainism was, in the first place, a religion, and developed a philosophy of its own in order to make this religion a self-consistent system. 2 e.g., the Sankhya principle mahān means mahân ātmā; the three gunas are suggested by the trivrtkarana of Chhandogya Up. vi. 3f.; and prakrti by the cosmical brahma of the earlier Upanisad doctrine, wherefore in the Gauḍapada Bhasya on Karika 22 brahma is given as a synonym of prakyti, etc. 3 The fundamental theories of Jainism, e.g. the syadvāda, their division of living beings, especially the elementary lives, are not found in Buddhism. 4 See SBE xlv. [1895] Introd., p. xviii ff. 1 Sreyan), rhinoceros, golden; (12) Väsupūjya, buffalo, red ; (18) (15) Dharma, thunderbolt, golden; (16) Santi, antelope, golden; Vimala, hog, golden; (14) Ananta (or Anantajit), falcon, golden; (17) Kunthu, goat, golden; (18) Ara, the nandyavarta, golden; (19) Malli, jar, blue; (20) Suvrata (or Munisuvrata), tortoise, black; (21) Nami, blue lotus, golden; (22) Nemí (or Arisanemi), conch shell, black; (23) Pārsva, snake, blue; (24) Vardhamana, lion, golden. All Tirthakaras were Ksatriyas; Munisuvrata and Nemi belonged to the Harivamsa, the remaining 22 to the Ikṣváku race. Malli was a woman, according to the Svetambaras; but this the Digambaras deny, as, according to them, no female can reach liberation. The interval in years between Mahavira and the two last Tirthakaras has been given above. Nami died 500,000 years before Nemi, Munisuvrata 1,100,000 years before Nami; the next intervals are 6,500,000, 10,000,000, or a krore; the following intervals cannot be expressed in definite numbers of years, but are given in palyopamas and sagaropamas, the last interval being one krore of krores of sagaropamās. The length of the life and the height of the Tirthakaras are in proportion to the length of the interval (see art. AGES OF THE WORLD [Indian]). These particulars are here given according to the Svetambaras. In connexion with these items of the mythological history of the Jains, it may be added that they relate the legends of 12 universal monarchs (Chakravartins), of 9 Vasudevas, 9 Baladevas, and 9 Prativasudevas who lived within the period from the first to the 22nd Tirthakara. Together with the 24 Tirthakaras they are the 63 great personages of Jain history; the legends of their lives form the subject of a great epic work by Hemachandrathe Trişaşṭisalākapuruşacharita, which is based on older sources, probably the Vasudevahindi (edited in Bhavnagar, 1906–09, by the Jainadharmaprasärakasabhā). preserved in the canonical books of the Jains about Mahavira. His becoming a monk, and, some 12 years later, his attainment of omniscience (kevala), are, of course, celebrated events. But tradition is silent about his motives for renouncing the world, and about the particular truths whose discovery led to his exalted position. At any rate, Mahāvīra is not described by tradition as having first become a disciple of teachers whose doctrines afterwards failed to satisfy him, as we are told of Buddha; he seems to have had no misgivings, and to have known where truth was to be had, and thus he became a Jain monk. And again, when, after many years of austerities such as are practised by other ascetics of the Jains, he reached omniscience, we are not given to understand that he found any new truth, or a new revelation, as Buddha is said to have received; nor is any particular doctrine or philosophical principle mentioned the knowledge and insight of which then occurred to him for the first time. But he is represented as gaining, at his kevala, perfect knowledge of what he knew before only in part and imperfectly. Thus Mahāvira appears in the tradition of his own sect as one who, from the beginning, had followed a religion established long ago; had he been more, had he All Tirthakaras have reached Nirvana at their been the founder of Jainism, tradition, ever eager death. Though, being released from the world, to extol a prophet, would not have totally repressed they neither care for nor have any influence on his claims to reverence as such. Nor do Buddhistic worldly affairs, they have nevertheless become traditions indicate that the Niganthas owed their the object of worship and are regarded as the origin to Nataputta; they simply speak of them 'gods' (deva) by the Jains (see art. ATHEISM as of a sect existing at the time of Buddha. We [Jain], vol. ii. p. 186 f.); temples are erected to cannot, therefore, without doing violence to tradi- them where their idols are worshipped.1 The tion, declare Mahavira to have been the founder of favourite Tīrthakaras are the first and the three Jainism. But he is without doubt the last prophet last ones, but temples of the remaining ones are of the Jains, the last Tirthakara. His predecessor, also met with. The worship of the idols of the Pārsva, the last Tirthakara but one, seems to have Tirthakaras is already mentioned in some canonical better claims to the title of founder of Jainism. books, but no rules for their worship are given;" His death is placed at the reasonable interval of it was, however, already in full sway in the first 250 years before that of Mahāvīra, while Pārsva's centuries of our era, as evidenced by the Paumapredecessor Aristanemi is stated to have died chariya, the oldest Prakrit kavya of the Jains, and 84,000 years before Mahavira's Nirvana. Followers by the statues of Tirthakaras found in ancient sites of Parsva are mentioned in the canonical books;e.g., in the Kankali mound at Mathura which and a legend in the Uttaradhyayana sūtra xxiii. belongs to this period. Some sects, especially a relates a meeting between a disciple of Parsva and rather recent section of the Svetämbaras, the a disciple of Mahavira which brought about the Dhundhia or Sthanakavāsins, reject this kind of union of the old branch of the Jain church and the worship altogether." new one. This seems to indicate that Pārśva was a historical person; but in the absence of historical documents we cannot venture to go beyond a conjecture. 2. Jain view of their origin, etc.-According to the belief of the Jains themselves, Jain religion is eternal, and it has been revealed again and again, in every one of the endless succeeding periods of the world, by innumerable Tirthakaras. In the present avasarpini period (see art. AGES OF THE WORLD [Indian], vol. i. p. 200 f.) the first Tirthakara was Rṣabha, and the last, the 24th, was Vardhamana. The names, signs, and colours of the 24 Tirthakaras were as follows: (1) Rṣabha (or Vṛṣabha), bull, golden; (2) Ajita, elephant, golden; (3) Sambhava, horse, golden; (4) Abhinandana, ape, golden; (5) Sumati, heron, golden; (6) Padmaprabha, lotusflower, red; (7) Supärśva, the svastika, golden; (8) Chandraprabha, moon, white; (9) Suvidhi (or Puspadanta), dolphin, white; (10) Sitala, the śrivatsa, golden; (11) Sreyarhsa (or 1 A. F. R. Hoernle, Uvāsagadasão, tr., p. 5 f., note (Calcutta, 1890), says that Mahavira, having been born in Kollaga, naturally, when he assumed the monk's vocation, retired (as related in Kalpasutra 115 f.) to the cheiya of his own clan, called Duipalāsa and situated in the neighbourhood of Kollaga. Mahavira's parents (and with them probably their whole clan of Naya Kṣattriyas) are said to have been followers of the tenets of Pársvanatha (see Ayäranga, ii. 15, § 16). As such they would, no doubt, keep up a religious establishment (cheiya) for the accommodation of Parsva, on his periodical visits, with his disciples, to Kundapura or Vesali. Mahavira, on renouncing the world, would probably first join Parsva's sect, in which, however, he soon became a reformer and chief himself.' 2 SBE xlv. Introd. p. xxif. It goes without saying that the Tirthakaras, except the two last, belong to mythology rather than to history; the 22nd, Aristanemi, is connected with the legend of Kṛṣṇa as his relative. But the details of Mahavira's life as related in the canonical books may be regarded on the whole as historical facts. grama, a suburb of the town Vaisali (the modern Basarh, some He was a Ksatriya of the Jñäta clan and a native of Kunda27 miles north of Patna).5 He was the second son of the Ksatriya Siddhartha and Trisala, a highly connected lady. The Svetambaras maintain, and thus it is stated in the Achárfirst descended into the womb of the Brahmani Devananda, and anga sutra, the Kalpasutra, etc., that the soul of the Tirthakara was, by the order of Indra, removed thence to the womb of Trisala.6 But the Digambaras reject this story. His parents, 1 For images and idols of the Jains see J. Burgess, Digambara Jain Iconography,' IA xxxii. [1903] 459 ff.; G. Bühler, Specimens of Jaina Sculptures from Mathura' in Epigraphia Indica, London, 1880, p. 487 ff. ii. [1894] 311 ff.; J. Fergusson and J. Burgess, Cave Temples, 2 Some kind of worship, however, seems to be implied for the oldest times by the mention of the various cheiya (chaitya), or shrines, in the sacred books. These shrines were situated in gardens in which Mahavira resided during his visits to the towns to which they belonged. Cf. Hoernle, Uvāsagadasão, tr., p. 2, note 4. 3 Epigr. Ind. ii. 311 f. 4 See Notes on the non-Idolatrous Shwetambar Jains,' by 'Seeker,' 1911; and Margaret Stevenson, Notes on Modern Jainism, p. 131. 5 Kundaggāma and Vāņiyaggāma, both suburbs of Vesāli, have been identified by Hoernle (loc. cit. p. 4, note 8) with the modern villages Bäniya and Basukuņḍ. 6 Cf. the transfer of the embryo of Baladeva from the womb of Rohini to that of Devaki, whence he got the name Samkarşaņa, still retaining the metronymic Rauhiņeya. |