kaara.naat paapam

[Robert J. Zydenbos]

mm> Prof. S.A. Srinivasan [...] is interested in sources for and
mm> information and clarification regarding the terms kaara.naat
mm> paapa.m and kaara.naat pu.nya.m. The terms are encountered in the
mm> commentary by Samaradivaakara to the Jain text Niilake"sii.

I do not know that particular text, but it seems to me a technical term
from Jaina karmasiddhaanta. I came across it in my study of Jaina
ritualism.

There are three ways in which both kinds of karmic influx (pu.nya as well
as paapa) are bound: through doing (kara.na), causing to be done by
somebody else (kaara.na) and approval of somebody else's doing
(anumodana). [Recently I have written a little about this in a note in my
article on "The Ritual Giving of Food to a Digambara Renunciant", which is
about to appear in the volume of collected papers of the conference
"Approaches to Jaina Studies: Philosophy, Logic, Rituals and Symbols" held
in Toronto last year. This book should appear with the Univ. of Toronto
press.]

The phrase "kaara.naat paapam" would therefore mean that the person in
question accumulates bad karma not through any act which he himself has
committed, but because he has made somebody else commit that act. (Please
ask Prof. Srinivasan whether this makes sense in the context of his
reading.)

Robert Zydenbos