Who among the following was not a Jain Acharya?
- (a)Bhadrabahu
- (b)Khema
- (c)Haribhadra
- (d)Siddhasena Divakara
Correct — B, Khema. Khema belongs to the other heterodox tradition altogether. She was a Buddhist bhikkhuni of the sixth century BCE, born at Sagala, daughter of the king of Madra and married to Bimbisara of Magadha; the Buddha named her foremost in wisdom among his female disciples, and she is counted with Uppalavanna as one of his two chief nuns, the counterpart of Sariputta on the men's side. Her verses survive in the Therigatha, the collection of poems by elder Buddhist nuns, and she is listed in the Anguttara Nikaya among the leading women followers. The other three are all Jain teachers of the first rank — Bhadrabahu, the last Shruta Kevalin; Haribhadra, the great Sanskrit and Prakrit author of the eighth century; and Siddhasena Divakara, the logician. Khema is the intruder.
- (a)Bhadrabahu — Bhadrabahu, roughly 367 to 298 BCE, is revered by both Digambara and Shvetambara traditions as the last Shruta Kevalin, the last ascetic to hold the whole of the scriptural knowledge. The Shvetambaras attribute the Kalpa Sutra to him, and tradition links him with Chandragupta Maurya's migration south and death at Shravanabelagola.
- (c)Haribhadra — Haribhadra Suri was a Jain acharya of about the eighth century, a prolific writer in Sanskrit and Prakrit whose comparative surveys of philosophical schools are still read. He is one of the pillars of the Shvetambara intellectual tradition.
- (d)Siddhasena Divakara — Siddhasena Divakara was a Jain acharya and logician, remembered for works on Jain epistemology and for the doctrine of many-sidedness. He belongs firmly inside the Jain philosophical lineage.
Jainism and Buddhism arose in the same region and century and share a great deal of vocabulary, which is why odd-one-out items across the two traditions are a staple. An acharya in Jainism is a teacher and head of an order; the corresponding Buddhist terms are bhikkhu and bhikkhuni for monks and nuns, with thera and theri for the elders.
The way through is to hold one anchor for each name rather than a general sense of antiquity. Khema's anchor is the Therigatha, which is unmistakably Buddhist — a Pali canonical text of nuns' verses — and that single association settles the question. It is worth noticing that the item does not need any judgement about doctrine: the three Jain names come from three different centuries and three different kinds of work, so no pattern among them would help, and only the outsider can be spotted. The same trick appears in reverse when a question lists Jain canonical texts and slips a Buddhist one in among them.
- Khema was a Buddhist bhikkhuni, one of the Buddha's two chief female disciples and the one named foremost in wisdom.
- Her verses appear in the Therigatha; she is listed in the Anguttara Nikaya among the leading women disciples.
- She was born at Sagala, daughter of the king of Madra, and was a queen of Bimbisara of Magadha before ordination.
- Bhadrabahu, about 367 to 298 BCE, is the last Shruta Kevalin in both Jain traditions and is credited with the Kalpa Sutra.
- Haribhadra Suri, about the eighth century, and Siddhasena Divakara, the logician, are the other two Jain acharyas in the list.
- Assuming any ancient Indian ascetic name in a Jain question must be Jain.
- Confusing the Therigatha with a Jain text; it is Pali and canonical for Buddhism.
- Mixing Bhadrabahu with Sthulabhadra, who led the monks who stayed in Magadha during the migration south.
As an odd-one-out among teachers or texts of the two heterodox traditions, or as a straight text-to-tradition question.
Which one of the following is not a part of early Jaina literature?
- (a) Therigatha
- (b) Acarangasutra
- (c) Sutrakritanga
- (d) Brihatkalpasutra
Answer(a) Therigatha
The same intruder, hidden in a list of books instead of a list of teachers. The Therigatha is the collection in which Khema's own verses are preserved, so one association answers both questions.
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 Jain half of the same syllabus, tested on the sectarian split rather than on the roll of teachers. It was Bhadrabahu's group that went south and became the Digambaras, which is the fact that decides both items.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Therigatha is a collection of verses attributed to
- (a)Jain nuns of the Shvetambara order
- (b)Buddhist nuns of the early sangha
- (c)Ajivika teachers
- (d)Vedic seers
Answer(b) Buddhist nuns of the early sangha — a Pali canonical text preserving the poems of the theris, among them Khema.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Bhadrabahu is described in Jain tradition as
- (a)the first Tirthankara
- (b)the last Shruta Kevalin
- (c)the founder of the Shvetambara sect
- (d)a contemporary of Mahavira
Answer(b) the last Shruta Kevalin — the last teacher held to possess the entire scriptural knowledge, credited with the Kalpa Sutra.