Article: Mūla-sūtras

Gallery of an Agam Mandir
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

The legendary account of its composition emphasises the fact that the Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra is an abridgment of the 14 Pūrvas. Some commentators have developed this idea by making specific connections between certain chapters and given Pūrvas.

Others, however, consider that this work is an epitome of the 12 Aṅgas. Similarly, they establish a systematic connection between given chapters of the Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra and particular Aṅgas. The fact is that most of the topics the Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra covers are also dealt with in other parts of the canon, especially in the first Aṅga, the Ācārānga-sūtra, the oldest book on monastic conduct. In a number of cases these connections go beyond the contents and relate to points of detail, such as metaphors or phrases (see further Illustrated Daśavaikālika Sūtra, introduction pages 20–21).

A number of traditionally famous striking formulas or aphorisms believed to capture the essence of Jainism comes from this work.

Rājīmatī and Rathanemi in the cave
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra does not contain any narrative chapter. But the famous story featuring Rājimāti’s lesson to Rathanemi is recalled in chapter 2.

In this tale Rathanemi is so beguiled by Rājimāti’s beauty that he is about to give up life as a monk until she reminds him of his vows. The purpose of the second chapter is to strongly encourage monks to remain firm on the path of celibacy and not to indulge in desire.

The story and verses here are identical to the same episode told in chapter 22 of another Mūla-sūtra, the Uttarādhyayana.

Examples of types of living beings
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The fourth chapter of the Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra is extremely important. It starts with an extensive description of the six kinds of life forms:

• earth-bodies – puḍhavi
• water-bodies – āu
• fire-bodies – teu
• wind-bodies – vāu
• plant-bodies – vaṇassai
• mobile bodies – tasa

Exact knowledge of this topic is a prerequisite for proper monastic conduct. Such behaviour is characterised by self-control and its consequence, which is non-aggression towards living beings and non-violence. These notions are expressed by the Sanskrit terms ahiṃsā and saṃyama, which occur right at the beginning of the work.

Thus the monk is told not to:

• harm living beings
• cause others to harm them
• allow others to harm them in mind, speech or action.

Then comes the exposition of the five major vows – mahā-vratas – which define the fundamentals of monastic conduct. They are not formulated as general rules, but phrased in the first person singular as a resolution expressed in the presence of one’s teacher. This is a way to involve the reader or vow-taker directly in the process:

• I take the first great vow – abstinence from harming any living being in any way
• I take the second great vow – abstinence from wrong speech
• I take the third great vow – abstinence from taking what has not been given
• I take the fourth great vow – abstinence from sexual intercourse
• I take the fifth great vow – abstinence from keeping any possession.

To the set of the five vows is added a sixth. This vow relates to the prohibition on eating at night – that is, after sunset. This vow is not recorded in the great vows as expressed in the first Aṅga of the Śvetāmbara canon, the Ācārānga-sūtra.

Then comes another set of prose paragraphs where various prohibitions relating to monastic behaviour are expressed in general terms as ‘A monk or a nun should not…’.

This chapter ends with a set of stanzas emphasising the need for knowledge and the ability to discriminate between good and bad. The verses stress how necessary these two elements are before the monk can begin proper behaviour.

Lay women give alms to nuns
Image by Khetshi N. Shah © Khetshi N. Shah

In two sections, chapter 5 deals extensively with ‘the begging-tour’ or search for alms which Śvetāmbara mendicants undertake twice a day. The text stresses how precautions have to be taken regarding the:

• origin and nature of the food offered as alms
• procedure when accepting the food
• procedure when consuming it.

As the rituals surrounding the seeking, accepting and eating of food as alms are highly complex, numerous faults can be committed easily. Whereas other specialised texts on alms give technical designations and definitions, here the emphasis is on practical aspects, such as:

• what should the mendicant avoid?
• what should he do in a given circumstance?

The text refers to the circumstances where a mendicant interacts with the lay donor – the lady who cooks and provides the food.

The interpretation of particular terms used here (5. 1. 73) has been highly controversial. It is said that the monk should avoid bahu-aṭṭhiyaṃ puggalaṃ aṇimisaṃ vā bahu-kaṇṭayaṃ. In the standard Jain understanding, this means to avoid ‘fruits with many seeds, scales, thorns’. But the parallel of the phrase found in the first Aṅga, the Ācārānga-sūtra, raises difficulties with the usual interpretation. The phrase bahu-y-aṭṭhiyaṃ vā maṃsaṃ macchaṃ vā bahu-kaṇṭagaṃ (II. 1. 10. 5) is used, where the words for ‘meat’ – maṃsaṃ – and ‘fish’ – macchaṃ – are straightforward. This suggests that the meaning is ‘lump of flesh with many bone pieces’ and ‘fish with many scales and spikes’. This is one of the traces found in scriptures that indicate that non-vegetarianism was not excluded in earlier times and that ancient Jain ascetics could have eaten meat (Alsdorf-Bollée 2010: 6ff., Dundas 2002: 177). These traces can be found even though they are extremely disturbing to Jain orthodoxy and thus tend to be suppressed. Schubring’s 1932 translation of the Daśavaikālika-sūtra verse was censored by the Jain publisher (Managers of the Sheth Anandji Kalianj in Ahmedabad, Gujarat), with the controversial words appearing as ‘x x x x x’.

Mahāvīra and the universal gathering
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

An elaborate exposition of dharma and conduct, the sixth chapter can be viewed as a longer version of what is summarised in chapter 3. It is presented in the form of a sermon given by a teacher in answer to questions about the nature of his conduct.

Some of the topics are common to other chapters, such as references to the six life forms, the great vows and searching for alms. The expounding teacher often refers to Mahāvīra as the source of his exposition and provides a strong argument in favour of saintly behaviour, which leads to perfect calmness and final liberation.

Giving alms to Śvetāmbara monks
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The topic of the eighth chapter is again the rules of conduct for all circumstances of monastic life. This chapter phrases these rules as either ‘the monk should…’ or ‘he should not…’.

Some rules relate to topics already dealt with in the preceding chapters, such as food or speech. The emphasis is on restraint, detachment and protection from inclinations or passions that prevent the mendicant from reaching the goal of spiritual progression to salvation. The conclusion is:

Such a monk who bears all pains, has subdued his senses, possesses knowledge of tradition, is without egotism and property, shines forth, when the cloud of Karman has disappeared, like the moon at the definitive removal of the cloudy veil

8. 63, Schubring’s translation, page 109

Senior monk teaching
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

There are four sections in Chapter 9, all discussing the relationship between the mendicant and his superiors, between the student and his teacher. In order to be able to learn and progress, a mendicant must behave with modesty, humility and respect. All these notions are conveyed in one term – vinaya – which is also the topic of the first chapter of another Mūla-sūtra, the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra.

Thus a disciple should not offend or mock his teacher – guru – as the first section explains. This may have unwished for and dangerous consequences: ‘after an offence against the Guru there is no Salvation’ (9. 1. 9; Schubring’s translation, page 110).

The second section starts with the vigorous statement that ‘humble behaviour is the root of dharma’. The attitudes of respectful and arrogant monks are described and their respective results contrasted. The third section has a positive approach, concentrating on the one who is humble and well behaved. All the stanzas of this section end with the same motto, which gives the section a formal unity. The motto is: ‘he is worthy of respect’ – sa pujjo.

In the final section, four points regarding the general concept of vinaya are examined in turn, which are:

• devotion to discipline
• devotion to the sacred texts
• devotion in fasting
• devotion to good conduct.

Dangers to the vow of celibacy
Image by British Library © CC0 1.0 (Creative Commons Public Domain)

The second Mūla-sūtra is called Uttarajjhayaṇa-sutta in Prakrit, Uttarādhyayana-sūtra in Sanskrit. The term uttara can be understood as meaning ‘last’, ‘additional’ or ‘excellent’. This scripture deals with all aspects of Jain doctrine and monastic practice, such as:

• detachment
• proper conduct
• karma
• colours of the soul
• detailed exposition of living beings.

These fundamental concepts are considered in 36 lessons, all characterised by forceful statements.

The Uttarādhyayana-sūtra offers a combination of didactic and narrative chapters, containing numerous conversion stories. In the latter in particular, Jain values are not universally accepted and have to be demonstrated. Thus dialogues and opposing views are common in this text.

With one of the richest pictorial histories of any Śvetāmbara scripture, the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra has countless illustrations for both instruction and story approaches.

Although it has prose passages, the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra is chiefly in verse. The poetry demonstrates a range of metres, which suggest different parts of it date from various periods.

This scripture is examined in more depth in the dedicated Uttarādhyayana-sūtra article.

Scenes of forgiveness
Image by Wellcome Trust Library © Wellcome Library, London

Called Āvassaya-sutta in Prakrit and Āvaśyaka-sūtra in Sanskrit, the third Mūla-sūtra is also the shortest.

In its full form the Āvaśyaka-sūtra is not considered to be extremely old, but it is very important because of its subject. It deals successively with the six obligatory duties of a mendicant, centring around the idea of confession and repentance – pratikramaṇa. It is a liturgical text, containing the formulas a monk must recite in the presence of a teacher to express his wish to adopt proper conduct or to repent for transgressions. In five sections out of six, the formulas are in the first-person singular, with the ‘I’ a mendicant. Examples include:

• ‘Venerable teacher, I perform the rite of equanimity’
• ‘O teacher, I wish to pay homage / repent and so on’.

Each covering one of the obligatory duties, the six sections are in prose but contain hymns of praise in verse. These devotional songs are also part of the formalised ritual that the Āvaśyaka-sūtra unfolds.

This scripture is examined in more depth in the article on the Āvaśyaka-sūtra and its commentary, the Āvaśyaka-niryukti.

Śvetāmbara monastic equipment
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

This Mūla-sūtra is different from the other three works in this class of scripture in several ways.

Firstly, the Śvetāmbara sects of the Sthānaka-vāsins and Terāpanthins do not recognise this text as a Mūla-sūtra. However, Śvetāmbara Mūrtipūjak Jains class it as the fourth Mūla-sūtra. This is a way to give it more prominence, partly due to the fact that it deals at length with all issues regarding the search for alms.

Secondly, it is made up of two texts. These are known as the Piṇḍa-nijjutti and Ogha-nijjutti in Prakrit, Piṇḍa-niryukti and the Ogha-niryukti in Sanskrit.

Next, technically its constituent texts belong to another category of Jain writings – that of the niryukti. This generic name is given to a group of ten Prakrit verse-commentaries where scholastic methods of analysis are applied to understand words and concepts. The other existing texts in this category are based on a specific work – a sūtra. This is not the case with these two works, which have arisen independently of any sūtra. They are ascribed to ‘Bhadrabāhu’ or ‘Bhadrabāhu II’, who could have lived in the 1st century CE or, according to some, in the 5th century CE (Wiley 2004: 52).

More generally, the two works are related in their contents, dealing in highly technical and sophisticated ways with daily mendicant life. The Ogha-niryukti deals with various aspects, taking its title from ogha, meaning ‘general, global’. This includes the practice of gathering alms, which Śvetāmbara monks and nuns collect twice a day. The second text concentrates on the issue of alms-gathering, with piṇḍa meaning ‘rice-ball’. These complementary works also cover matters relating to the alms bowl, with the Ogha-niryukti also treating other monastic implements. They provide a lot of information about material culture, however difficult it may be to grasp (Deo 1960, Mette 1974, Bollée 1994).

Hence the Ogha-niryukti and the Piṇḍa-niryukti function as specialised supplements to matters that are especially detailed in another of the ‘Fundamental Texts’. This is the Daśa-vaikālika-sūtra, the fifth chapter of which deals with seeking, receiving and consuming alms.

The Ogha-niryukti has 812 stanzas distributed over seven sections.

The sister text that also comprises the fourth text – the Piṇḍa-niryukti – has 671 verses in three large sections, corresponding to eight headings. The two writings also share numerous verses.