scorpions, mosquitoes, gnats, flies, locusts and butterflies should be included under this heading, and also, according to some Jaina, moths, which are, however, often classed as Tri-indriya. Beings cannot be kept in this division for longer than six months without rebirth.
iv (e). Pañċendriya.The extra sense added to the jīva in the next class is that of hearing; and these Pañċendriya should therefore, to correspond, be possessed of nine prana. Some, however, have an extra prana added, that of mind, and these are called Saṁjñī pañċendriya, whilst the rest who have only nine are called Asaṁjñī. There are four divisions of the Pañċendriya: hell beings, lower animals, human beings and demigods. Of these the hell beings, human beings and demigods are possessed of intelligence, and so are certain creatures such as cows, buffaloes and other domestic animals; whilst frogs, fish and disease germs have no intelligence, for these are all self-created!
Germs which are thus classified in a way that seems strange to us as Pañċendriya are of great importance in Jaina philosophy. When engaging in Pratikramaṇa (or Paḍīkamaṇuṁ), i.e. Confession, Jaina think of the sins they may have committed against any being possessing any indriya and ask forgiveness. At this time they also think of any germs which they may have created by sinning against the laws of sanitation in fourteen specified ways. If through a man’s carelessness or insanitary habits germs should have multiplied and infection spread, Mahāvīra declared him to be guilty of a sin as grave as that of murder.
The minimum of time which a being may be sentenced to spend as a hell being or a demigod is ten thousand years, and it may extend to thirty-three sāgaropama. In the case of human beings (including germs, which are ranked as humans!) and lower animals, the period may extend from one instant to three palya of time.
We have already followed the Jaina as they divided
