Consider the following statements with reference to Jainism: 1. Vardhamana Mahavira attained Kaivalyajnana outside the town of Jrimbhikagrama, on the banks of river Rijupalika and in the field of a householder named Samaga. 2. The state when the Karma particles actually begin to flow towards the Jiva to bind it is known as Asrava. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2023 Paper I Q104?

C. Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Statement 1 reproduces the traditional account of Mahavira's enlightenment almost word for word. After twelve years of austerity he attained kevala-jnana, the omniscient knowledge, in the thirteenth year outside the town of Jrimbhikagrama on the northern bank of the river Rijupalika, in the field of a householder named Samaga, seated under a sal tree. Statement 2 is the correct definition of asrava. In Jain metaphysics karma is a subtle material substance, and asrava is the influx — the moment at which karmic particles begin to flow towards the soul and attach to it. The two statements are independent and both hold, so the answer takes them together.

(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer

Why

Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Statement 1 reproduces the traditional account of Mahavira's enlightenment almost word for word. After twelve years of austerity he attained kevala-jnana, the omniscient knowledge, in the thirteenth year outside the town of Jrimbhikagrama on the northern bank of the river Rijupalika, in the field of a householder named Samaga, seated under a sal tree. Statement 2 is the correct definition of asrava. In Jain metaphysics karma is a subtle material substance, and asrava is the influx — the moment at which karmic particles begin to flow towards the soul and attach to it. The two statements are independent and both hold, so the answer takes them together.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 only — Rejects statement 2, but asrava is precisely the inflow of karmic matter towards the jiva, and it is one of the seven fundamental categories of Jain doctrine.
(b)2 only — Rejects statement 1, although the place, the river and the name of the householder are all as the Jain canon records them.
(d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, when neither has been altered.

Concept

Jain teaching rests on seven categories: jiva, the soul; ajiva, everything that is not soul; asrava, the influx of karma towards the soul; bandha, the resulting bondage; samvara, the stopping of further influx; nirjara, the shedding of karma already accumulated; and moksha, the liberation that follows when the soul is finally free of it. What makes the system distinctive is that karma is treated as material — fine particles that stick to the soul and weigh it down — so the whole discipline of Jain asceticism is designed to stop the inflow and burn off the stock.

Details of Mahavira's life are asked often enough to be worth learning as a set. He was born at Kundagrama near Vaishali to Siddhartha of the Jnatrika clan and Trishala, who was connected to the Lichchhavi chief Chetaka; he renounced the world at thirty; he attained kevala-jnana in his forty-second year at the spot this question names; and he died at Pavapuri in his seventy-second year. The names in statement 1 are unfamiliar enough that a candidate may distrust them for that reason alone, which is exactly the reaction the item is testing. Unfamiliarity is not evidence of falsity in a question drawn from canonical texts.

Key facts

Mahavira attained kevala-jnana outside Jrimbhikagrama, on the bank of the Rijupalika, in the field of the householder Samaga, under a sal tree.
Asrava is the influx of karmic matter towards the soul; samvara is the stopping of that influx and nirjara the shedding of what has already attached.
The seven tattvas of Jainism are jiva, ajiva, asrava, bandha, samvara, nirjara and moksha.
Mahavira was born at Kundagrama near Vaishali and attained nirvana at Pavapuri in Bihar.
The three jewels of Jainism are right faith, right knowledge and right conduct, and the five vows add brahmacharya to the four taught by Parshvanatha.

A polished golden idol of Mahavira seated cross-legged in meditation, the lion emblem of the twenty-fourth Tirthankara carved on the pedestal below him — Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, who attained kevala-jnana after twelve years of austerity and whose teaching is built on the seven categories beginning with jiva and asrava.Image: Ms Sarah Welch · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Study next

The seven tattvas and the Jain theory of karma as material substanceThe five vows, the three jewels and the doctrines of anekantavada and syadvadaThe Jain councils at Pataliputra and Valabhi and the Digambara-Shvetambara splitParshvanatha and the four vows that preceded Mahavira's fiveJain patronage in the Deccan and the Gujarat and Karnataka temple traditions

Common traps

Distrusting a statement because its proper nouns are unfamiliar rather than because anything in it is wrong.
Confusing asrava with samvara, which is its exact opposite.
Placing Mahavira's enlightenment at Pavapuri, which is where he attained nirvana, not where he attained omniscience.

As a two-statement item pairing one dense biographical detail with one technical term, so the candidate needs the doctrine as well as the life.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2003_GS1_Q432003Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements: 1. Vardhamana Mahavira’s mother was the daughter of Lichchhavi chief Chetaka. 2. Gautama Buddha’s mother was a princess from the Kosha-lan dynasty. 3. Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara, belonged to Banaras. Which of these statements is/are correct?

(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(c) 2 and 3

The same biographical territory, tested by altering a relationship rather than a place. Trishala was Chetaka's sister and not his daughter, which is exactly the sort of one-word substitution this genre of item lives on.

CDS_GK_2023_II_Q162023Open & attempt →

Which one of the following statements about the Shvetambara Sect of Jainism is not correct?

(a) It refers to monks, who wear white clothes.
(b) It refers to monks, who migrated to the south of Vindhyas in 4th century BCE.
(c) They recognized the existence of canonical texts including the 12 Angas.
(d) They believed that women can also attain salvation.

Answer(b) It refers to monks, who migrated to the south of Vindhyas in 4th century BCE.

The sectarian half of the same syllabus. It was the Digambaras who are associated with the southward migration during the famine, while the Shvetambaras stayed in the north — a distinction worth holding alongside the doctrinal vocabulary tested here.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
In Jain philosophy, the stopping of the influx of karmic matter into the soul is called
- (a)Asrava
- (b)Samvara
- (c)Nirjara
- (d)Bandha
Answer(b) Samvara — asrava is the influx, samvara stops it and nirjara sheds what has already accumulated.
practice — not a real PYQ
Mahavira attained nirvana at
- (a)Kundagrama
- (b)Pavapuri
- (c)Vaishali
- (d)Rajgir
Answer(b) Pavapuri, in present-day Bihar.