Shramana
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Samaṇa |
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A Śramaṇa (Sanskrit) or Samaṇa (Pāli) is a wandering monk in certain ascetic traditions of ancient India, including Jainism, Buddhism, and Ājīvika religion (now extinct).
Mahavira, the 24th Jina, and Gautama Buddha were leaders of their shramana orders. According to Buddhist and Jain literature, there were other śramaṇa leaders at that time. They are referred to as Titthiyas of Tīrthakas in the Buddhist Pāli literature. Mahāvīra is referred to as Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta (Sanskrit: Nirgrantha Jñātaputra), one of the Titthiyas.
For the six Tīrthikas see 六師外道
Gautama the Buddha regarded rigorous asceticism extreme and not leading to enlightenment and did not institute such methods, and thus adapted the "middle way," while the followers of Mahāvīra continued to practice asceticism. Devadatta, the cousin of Gautama, caused a split in the Buddhist saṅgha by demanding more rigorous practices.
A śramaṇa is one who performs acts of mortification or austerity. According to the definition, a being is himself responsible for his own deeds. Salvation, therefore, can be achieved by anybody irrespective of caste, creed, color or culture. The cycle of rebirth to which every individual is subject is viewed as the cause and substratum of misery. The goal of every person is to evolve a way to escape from the cycle of rebirth, namely by discounting ritual as a means of an emancipation and establishing from the misery of Saṃsāra, through pious religious activities.
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[edit] Etymology
The Sanskrit word śramaṇa is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root śram "to exert, effort, labor or to perform austerity". Śramaṇa thus means "one who strives" in Sanskrit.
A traditional Sanskrit definition is śramati tapasyatīti śramaṇaḥ "a śramaṇa is he who exerts himself and performs religious austerities". One of the earliest uses of the word is in Taittiriya Aranyaka (2-7-1) with the meaning of 'performer of austerities'.
Various forms of the word became known throughout Central and East Asia, largely through the spread of Buddhism in that area. According to a still disputed etymology, the word shaman, used by the Tungus people for their religious practitioners, may be borrowed from a local variant of the word śramaṇa.
[edit] Śramaṇa Movement
Several śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in the 5th century BC. These were people who strove for an alternate path to achieve salvation, alternate to the Vedic rituals.
The śramaṇa ideal of wandering began to change early in Buddhism, when the bhikṣu started living in monasteries (Skt. vihāra) at first during the rainy season, but eventually permanently. In mediaeval Jainism also, the tradition of wandering nearly became extinct, but was revived in the 19th century. Similar reforms have also regularly occurred in Buddhism.
Some of the terms are common between Jainism and Buddhism, including
The term pudgala is used by both but with completely different meanings.
[edit] References
- Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha (Novel), 1922
- A. L. Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas, 1951
[edit] Śramaṇa in Western literature
Various references to śramaṇas, with the name more or less distorted, have been handed down in Western literature about India.
[edit] Nicolaus of Damascus (c.10 CE)
Nicolaus of Damascus is famous for his account of an embassy sent by an Indian king "named Pandion (Pandyan kingdom?) or, according to others, Porus" to Caesar Augustus around 13 CE. He met with the embassy at Antioch. The embassy was bearing a diplomatic letter in Greek, and one of its members was a "Sarmano" (Σαρμανο) who burnt himself alive in Athens to demonstrate his faith. The event made a sensation and was quoted by Strabo and Dio Cassius. A tomb was made to the "Sarmano", still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention "ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ" (Zarmanochēgas indos apo Bargosēs – The sramana master from Barygaza in India).
[edit] Clement of Alexandria (150-211)
Clement of Alexandria makes several mentions of the Sramanas, both in the context of the Bactrians and the Indians:
"Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanaeans among the Bactrians ("Σαμαναίοι Βάκτρων"); and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanae ("Σαρμάναι"), and Brahmanae ("Βραχμαναι")." Clement of Alexandria "Exhortation to the Heathen"
To Clement of Alexandria, "Bactrians" apparently means "Oriental Greek", as in a passage of the Stromata:
- "It was after many successive periods of years that men worshipped images of human shape, this practice being introduced by Artaxerxes, the son of Darius, and father of Ochus, who first set up the image of Aphrodité Anaitis at Babylon and Susa; and Ecbatana set the example of worshipping it to the Persians; the Bactrians, to Damascus and Sardis." The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book I, Clement of Alexandria.
[edit] Porphyry (233-305)
Porphyry extensively describes the habits of the Sramanas (whom he calls Samanaeans) in his "On abstinence from animal food" Book IV . He says his information was obtained from "the Babylonian Bardesanes, who lived in the times of our fathers, and was familiar with those Indians who, together with Damadamis, were sent to Caesar":
"For the polity of the Indians being distributed into many parts, there is one tribe among them of men divinely wise, whom the Greeks are accustomed to call Gymnosophists. But of these there are two sects, over one of which the Brahmins preside, but over the other the Samanaeans. The race of the Brahmins, however, receive divine wisdom of this kind by succession, in the same manner as the priesthood. But the Samanaeans are elected, and consist of those who wish to possess divine knowledge." Porphyry "On abstinence from animal food" Book IV
"All the Brahmins originate from one stock; for all of them are derived from one father and one mother. But the Samanaeans are not the offspring of one family, being, as we have said, collected from every nation of Indians..."Porphyry "On abstinence from animal food" Book IV
On entering the order: "The Samanaeans are, as we have said, elected. When, however, any one is desirous of being enrolled in their order, he proceeds to the rulers of the city; but abandons the city or village that he inhabited, and the wealth and all the other property that he possessed. Having likewise the superfluities of his body cut off, he receives a garment, and departs to the Samanaeans, but does not return either to his wife or children, if he happens to have any, nor does he pay any attention to them, or think that they at all pertain to him. And, with respect to his children indeed, the king provides what is necessary for them, and the relatives provide for the wife. And such is the life of the Samanaeans. But they live out of the city, and spend the whole day in conversation pertaining to divinity. They have also houses and temples, built by the king". Porphyry "On abstinence from animal food" Book IV
On life and death: "They are so disposed with respect to death, that they unwillingly endure the whole time of the present life, as a certain servitude to nature, and therefore they hasten to liberate their souls from the bodies [with which they are connected]. Hence, frequently, when they are seen to be well, and are neither oppressed, nor driven to desperation by any evil, they depart from life." Porphyry "On abstinence from animal food", Book IV.
[edit] Hermann Hesse (20th century)
German novelist Hermann Hesse, long interested in Eastern, especially Indian, spirituality, wrote Siddhartha, in which the main character becomes a Samana upon leaving his home (where he was a Brahmin).
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Strabo, xv, 1, on the immolation of the Sramana in Athens (Paragraph 73)
- ↑ Dio Cassius, liv, 9.
- ↑ Clement of Alexandria "Exhortation to the Heathen"
- ↑ Clement of Alexandria "The Stromata, or Miscellanies" Book I
- ↑ Porphyry "On abstinence from animal food" Book IV, Paragraphs 17&18.
[edit] External links
- "Samaṇa", Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary entry.
