Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:56:00.898Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Before Mahāvīra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

R. Williams
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In discussing the symbolism of colours and figures Professor Kirfel recalls that Leo Frobenius spricht einmal von dem Sinn der Zahl als symbolischem Ausdruck einer bestimmten Kultur. Nach ihm ist “die Zahl nicht etwas von den Menschen Gefundenes sondern von den Menschen Erreichbares aus der Welt des unsichtbaren Daseins” und insofern “als direkter Beleg” für die Wesensart einer Kultur zu werten … Er betrachtet die Vierzahl “als Ausdruck durch den Horizont begrenzten Raumgefühls aufder Plane”, das das Merkmal der “solaren Kultur” sei, und “Lage, Ruhe” und “bestehende Gestaltung” zum Ausdruck bringe. Fast den gleichen Sinn wie die Vier-hat aber auch die Fünfzahl: zu den vier Kardinalpunkten ist nämlich noch der Zentralpunkt, gewissermaβen der Nullpunkt der Weltkoordinaten, als fünfter hinzugetreten. Without going further into Frobenius' theorizing on a tetradic solar culture, or, in a different direction, into the possible associations of the number 16 with a lunar cult surviving in the pūjā, it is enough to mention the importance which four and its multiples have always enjoyed in India, as until quite recently even the national coinage bore witness.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 98 , Issue 1 , January 1966 , pp. 2 - 6
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 2 note 1 Kirfel, W., Symbolik des Hinduismus und des Jinismus, Stuttgart, 1959, p. 95Google Scholar.

page 2 note 2 See Tucci, G., “Tracce di culto lunare in India”, RSO, XII (1948), p. 428Google Scholar.

page 2 note 3 This has of course often been noted, for example by Frauwallner, , Geschichte der indischen Philosophie, Vol. I, p. 264Google Scholar: “Doch setzt die Jainalehre die Vierzahl voraus”.

page 2 note 4 e.g. Jīvājīvābhigama, III, 2, 142 (Āgamodaya-Samiti, ed. p. 248b)Google Scholar.

page 2 note 5 Varāṅga-carita, XXIII, 30.

page 2 note 6 See Śramana Bhagavān Mahāvīra, Vol. V, Part I, p. 298.

page 2 note 7 Thus the relatively recent numerical patterns devised for the āśatanās use the multiples 12, 40, and 84.

page 3 note 1 Leumann, E., Buddha und Mahāvīra, die beiden indischen Religionsstifter, München, 1921, p. 33Google Scholar.

page 3 note 2 e.g., Vyākhyā-prajñapti (Āgamodaya-Samiti, ed., p. 791b)Google Scholar.

page 3 note 3 These have been preferred by some writers, e.g., Ayyangar, and Rao, , South Indian Jainism (Pt. II, p. 6)Google Scholar: “It is said in the Jaina āgamas that Mahavira was the first to insist on celibacy for the Jaina munis in addition to traditional digambaratva.”

page 3 note 4 Comm. on v. 7: pañcaiva na catvāri madhyama-tīrtheṣu mahā-vratānīva yataḥ Śailaka-rājo Nemināthaśiṣyasyāntike pañcāṇuvratikaṃ sapta-śikṣā-vratikaṃ śramaṇopāsaka-dharmaṃ pratipannaḥ.

page 3 note 5 Claims have of course been made elsewhere for the historical reality of Nemi.

page 3 note 6 To Nemi always and to Munisuvrata usually the body colour śyāma is assigned.

page 4 note 1 Sūri, Jinapati, Samācāri, v. 35Google Scholar. For this see Samayasundara, , Samācāri-śataka, p.240bGoogle Scholar.

page 4 note 2 There are at least seven different lists of śāsana-devīs, varying mainly in the way in which these attendant deities are assigned to the several Jinas.

page 4 note 3 See Nelli, R., Le Catharisme, p. 207Google Scholar.

page 4 note 4 For example, Vyākhyā-prajñapti, p. 503a, Samavayānga, p. 63, Jambudvīpaprajñapti, p. 158a (Samiti, Āgamodaya ed.)Google Scholar.

page 5 note 1 See Sūri, Jinaprabha, Vidhi-mārga-prapā, p. 34Google Scholar.

page 5 note 2 See Desai, P. B., Jainism in South India, p. 164Google Scholar.

page 5 note 3 See Yoga-śāstra (Bib. Ind. ed., p. 652). Here Hemacandra has, almost certainly, borrowed from Haribhadra, and not directly from the Yāpanīya-tantra.

page 5 note 4 See Jaina sāhitya aur itihās, pp. 56–60.

page 5 note 5 Bhagavatī Ārādhanā, v. 81 (Nemcand, Sākhārām ed., p. 210)Google Scholar.

page 6 note 1 Schubring, W., Das Mahānisīha (APAW), Berlin, 1918, p. 73Google Scholar.

page 6 note 2 See Deo, S. P., History of Jaina Monachism, p. 159Google Scholar. The author cites Ācārāṅga, II, 2, 1, 12 (p. 124), and Sūtrakṛdaṅga, I, 4, 1, 30 (p. 275).

page 6 note 3 Some examples of this are: Samarāditya-kathā (Bib. Ind. ed., p. 37): siddhi-vahū-nibbharāṇurāga-samāgamacintā-dubbale sesa-sāhuṇo; Kathā-ratnakoṣa of Devabhadra, (XII, p. 89a)Google Scholar: kuṇanti . . . nivvui-vahūe hattha-gaham bhavvā; and the opening verse of Somaprabha's Sūkta-muktāvalī mukti-strī-kuca-kumbhakunkuma-rasaḥ.

page 6 note 4 This pose is in fact to be adopted, like the classical Roman orans attitude, whenever an individual is in close communion with a divine being.