Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

SR No.: 011088
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 121

104
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
msdvi sayyā prātarutthāya peyā, bhuktam madhye
pānakam cāparāhne / drākşākhaņdam sarkarā cārdharitra mokşascānte
Sākyaputreņa drstaḥ ||
A soft bed, drinks in the morning, dinner at midday, drinks in the afternoon, and grapes and sugar at night - these have been laid down by Sākhyaputra as leading to salvation.
These are supposed to be drawn from works of the Buddhists themselves explaining their faith or from the writing of others professing to explain it. It is quite clear that as a matter of fact they are taken from the writings of hostile critics and from satires on the teachings of Buddha. Harşakula thinks that the verse in the text might refer to svatirthyas, some members of the same order as the speaker's, i.e., the Nirgranthas. The events of later days led the commentators, one feels constrained to say, to fasten every possible adverse criticism on to the Buddhists to make up, as it were, for the dearth of antiBuddhist statements in the texts. The present instance is a very strained attempt to drag in the Buddhists. Both in this verse as well as in another. 91 Harşakula is undecided about its exact application and names several possible alternatives. The truth probably is that the allusion was to a distinct view which held that like is produced by like and therefore mokşa being an agreeable thing is obtained by living an agreeable and comfortable life. This is the view held by the Tāntrikas.92 The Sātavādins also held the same view.93
91. Sut. S. I.üi.4.10 92. See, Cittavisuddhiprakaraņa attributed to Aryadeva,
JASB, Ixvii, 1898, p. 175, and Subhāşitasamgraha, p. 37. I am indebted to Pandit Vidhushekhar Bhattacharya for
these references. 93. This has been discussed later.