DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29591#0017
Introduction
13
a great number of sections which were again divided into smaller
sections, and works existing in the present Siddhanta are said to
have been “extracted" (uddhrta) from one single small section.
But even the purva's seem to have exhibited slight differences as
regards their subdivision &c.; it is for instance asserted in an old
text such as the Bhagavatl, p. 1202, that the heresiarch Gosala
Mamkhaliputta, the prophet of the Ajlvikas1 2, had taken his doctrine
from the eight mahanimittci s, a portion of the purva's2 of which
we hear nothing further. But, as Gosala was a contemporary of
Mahavlra, this may in fact refer to an older set of these texts
and not to that known to the authors of ahga 4 and of the Nan-
disutra.
These purva’s consequently constituted the oldest part of tire
canon, as it was handed down amongst the Jain pontiffs and
teachers from the death of their spiritual master in 467 B. C.3 until
the time of Candragupta, the founder of the Maurya empire (about
323—299 B. C.). In what shape the purva’s were then handed
down, and whether also other parts of the Siddhanta really exis-
ted already at this early date, we do not know; for we hear no-
thing of a real redaction of the canon before the time of Can-
dragupta. At that date the Jain church, still forming only one
large community, was governed by two contemporary pontiffs,
Sa mbhuta vij aya of the Mathara gotra (f 156 after VIra = 311
B. C.) and the famous Bhadrabahu of the Praclna gotra4 (7 170
after VIra = 297 B. C.)°. However, Sambhutavijaya died shortly
after the accession of Candragupta (placed by the Jains in 155/156
after VIra), and at the same time a horrible famine began to de-
vastate the realm of Magadha, lasting for twelve whole years. One
section of the Jain community, including Bhadrabahu, emigrated to
the Karnata country in South India, fearing that the disturbed
time would force them to break the ascetic rules. But another
group of the monks preferred to stay in Magadha under the lead-
1 Cp. JRAS 1913, p. 669 ff.
2 Cp. Hoernle Uvasagadasao App. I, p. 4.
3 Cp. IA 42, 121 ff.
4 Concerning this gotra, unknown elsewhere, cp. Jacobi Kalpasutra
p. 11.
0 The Jain statements concerning the following events have been
exhaustively dealt with by Jacobi ZDMG 38, 1 ff.
13
a great number of sections which were again divided into smaller
sections, and works existing in the present Siddhanta are said to
have been “extracted" (uddhrta) from one single small section.
But even the purva's seem to have exhibited slight differences as
regards their subdivision &c.; it is for instance asserted in an old
text such as the Bhagavatl, p. 1202, that the heresiarch Gosala
Mamkhaliputta, the prophet of the Ajlvikas1 2, had taken his doctrine
from the eight mahanimittci s, a portion of the purva's2 of which
we hear nothing further. But, as Gosala was a contemporary of
Mahavlra, this may in fact refer to an older set of these texts
and not to that known to the authors of ahga 4 and of the Nan-
disutra.
These purva’s consequently constituted the oldest part of tire
canon, as it was handed down amongst the Jain pontiffs and
teachers from the death of their spiritual master in 467 B. C.3 until
the time of Candragupta, the founder of the Maurya empire (about
323—299 B. C.). In what shape the purva’s were then handed
down, and whether also other parts of the Siddhanta really exis-
ted already at this early date, we do not know; for we hear no-
thing of a real redaction of the canon before the time of Can-
dragupta. At that date the Jain church, still forming only one
large community, was governed by two contemporary pontiffs,
Sa mbhuta vij aya of the Mathara gotra (f 156 after VIra = 311
B. C.) and the famous Bhadrabahu of the Praclna gotra4 (7 170
after VIra = 297 B. C.)°. However, Sambhutavijaya died shortly
after the accession of Candragupta (placed by the Jains in 155/156
after VIra), and at the same time a horrible famine began to de-
vastate the realm of Magadha, lasting for twelve whole years. One
section of the Jain community, including Bhadrabahu, emigrated to
the Karnata country in South India, fearing that the disturbed
time would force them to break the ascetic rules. But another
group of the monks preferred to stay in Magadha under the lead-
1 Cp. JRAS 1913, p. 669 ff.
2 Cp. Hoernle Uvasagadasao App. I, p. 4.
3 Cp. IA 42, 121 ff.
4 Concerning this gotra, unknown elsewhere, cp. Jacobi Kalpasutra
p. 11.
0 The Jain statements concerning the following events have been
exhaustively dealt with by Jacobi ZDMG 38, 1 ff.