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________________ HISTORICAL POSITION OF JAINISM Dr. J. S. JETLY, M.A., Ph.D. Jainism as a sect is supposed to have its historical existence in the time of Mahavira, the twentyfourth Tirthankara of Jainas. Some scholars take it as far back as Parsvanatha, the twentythird Tirthankara, who is generally placed in the 8th Century B.C. In the history of Indian culture Jainas and Buddhists are known as sramanas. A story of antagonism between Sramanas and Brahmanas appears to have become a part of the old tradition. The compound TAUbrAhmaNam according to Panini's rulel yeSAM ca virodhaH zAzvatikaH is a clear indication of the same. This item of our tradition requires some close consideration. For this purpose it would be interesting to note the rise of Sramana sect in their early relation to Brahmanical schools as well as historical developments of their churches. I shall of course limit myself to Jainas though the general problem of the rise of sramanas pertains to all the sramana sects. The Sutrakstanga' of Jainas and Brahmajala-Sutta of Buddhists refer to a great number of sects other than their own. Some of these may be Vedic while the others are non-vedic and sramana. Of these sects the historicity of the three sramana sects, viz. those of Jainas, Buddhists and Ajivakas is generally accepted by the scholars. There is, however, a controversy about the origin of these sramana sects. The older view is that these sramana sects were more or less so * states that these four 25 Uttar. 18-23 and Nanods: viz., 1. Patanjala Mahabhasya, p. 539. 2. Sut. refers to the creeds prevalent in the time of Mahavira, the 24th Tirthan kara of Jainas. They are (S) 1191, ( 21212, () tar and () fazar. The same Sut. states that these four great creeds comprise 363 schools. Vide Sut. I.xii.1; also cf. Sth. 4.4.35, Bhag. 30.1.825, Uttar. 18-23 and Nandi 47. 3. BJS. in DN enumerates 62 schools under the chief eight heads : viz., () HAVAITT, () qatna, () arafah, () aFET, (4) H ai, (a) saralla, (9) S TANICE, (c) fafagurfcanza DN 1.12.39, also cf. Syt. 1-2. It enumerates () 1991, (R) 9719917, () faglaarz, () 1917, (4), 791, (6) puruSavAda and (7) IzvaravAda. It should be noted that according to the works referred to of Jaina canons all the five Vadas excepting yadRcchAbAda and bhUtavAda come under the head of a whilst except 7917 all the six come under the head of ar also. For the detailed study vide SSJL by A. C. Sen.
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________________ 78 ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME many protests against the orthodox Vedic cult. The strongest argument in favour of this view is that our oldest extant literature comprises of Vedas including Brahmanas and Upanisads. The canoncial works of Jainas and Bauddhas are much later and presuppose the existence of Vedas and Vedism. Naturally, therefore, one becomes inclined to regard these sects represented by later literature as in some way related to the older Vedism. However, a more critical and thorough examination of the Vedic as well as of sramana sacred texts has given birth to the hypothesis of the independent origin of these sramana sects. Not only that but this study has also suggested the possibility of some of the Vedic sects like Saivism, schools like Sankhya-Yoga and some of the Bhakti cults being non-Vedic in origin. The bases of this hypothesis are the latest archeological researches, philological findings and also the literary evidences. Let us briefly review these different sources of the history. The archaelogical researches have now definitely proved the existence of a highly developed culture beside which the one reflected in the Vedas and Brahmanas looks rural if not primitive. Here I refer, of course, to the City culture of the Indus Valley. The existence of the images of ProtoSiva and Sakti in the monuments at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa points in the direction of the image-worship which was later on accepted by all Indian sects. It should be noted here that in the Vedas there is very little evidence of the cult of image-worship. Similarly philologists have now shown that the Sanskrit language that was codified by Panini was not the pure Aryan Vedic language. Many non-Vedic words current in the languages of the different regions of this country were absorbed in the Sanskrit language with the assimilation of the different non-Vedic cults into Vedic cult. Here we are concerned with the word 'Pujana" used in the sense of worship. The Vedic Aryans used the word 'Yajana' in the sense of their daily worship. They had no concern with image-worship. The word 'Pujana' indicates quite a different mode of worship, which was then prevalent among the people of nonVedic civilisation. It must have involved some sort of image-worship. With the assimilation of this image-worship, the word 'Pujana', also must have been assimilated in the language of the Aryans. In later times not only . 1. "Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Valley Civilisation" by John Marshall. Vide description of plate No. XII-17. 2. "Indo-Aryan and Hindi", p. 64.
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________________ JETLY: HISTORICAL POSITION OF JAINISM 79 did 'Pujana' become popular and the prevalent form of worship among all the classes of people but even in pure 'Yajana' of sacrifices imageworship was brought in, in one form or another. For example, the 'Pujana' of Ganapati has got its priority in every type of 'Yajana'. D. R. Bhandarkar? deals with the problem of non-Vedic sects in some details in his "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture". In this work, he draws upon archaeological researches as well as literary works like Vedas, Brahmanas, Sutras, Pitakas and Agamas. There he shows the origin of saivism to lie in non-Vedic Vratya cult. Similarly according to him Jainism and Buddhism have their origin in a Vrsala tribe. This tribe had its own independent civilization and gave stubborn resistance to the imposition of Brahmanic culture by the Aryans. This tribe chiefly resided in the north-east part of the country which is now known as Bihar and which is the birthplace of Jainism and Buddhism. In fact he has ably discussed the relation of the non-Vedic cultures with that of Vedic ones and has shown how some of the non-Vedic cults like Yoga and others were assimilated in Vedic cult. The findings of D. R. Bhandarkar strengthen the older hypothesis of Winternitz pertaining to the independent origin of the Gramana sects. Winternitz has discussed the problem in some detail in his lectures on 'Ascetic Literature in Ancient India'? He has paid tributes to the scholars like Rhys David, E. Lenmann and Richard Garbe who combated the older view of Vedic origin of the Sramana sects. His chief grounds are the constant occurrence of the term sramana-Brahmana in Buddhist Pitakas and in Asoka's inscriptions; legends, poetic maxims and parables found in the Mahabharata as well as in Puranas. He closely examines the Pita-Putra Samvada, Tuladhara-Jajali Samvada. Madhubindu parable and such other Samvadas and compares them with their different versions found in Jaina Agamas and Buddhist Jatakas. Thus examining thoroughly the different passages referring to asceticism and showing their contrast with those referring to ritualism, he concludes, "The origin of such ascetic poetry found in the Mahabharata and Puranas may have been either Buddhist or Jaina or the parable passages may all go back to the same source of an ascetic literature that probably arose in connection with Yoga and Sankhya teaching."3 'The Sanknya and Yoga schools, as we have 1. "Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Culture", pp. 40-52. 2. "Some Problems of Indian Literature", p. 21. 3. Ibid., page 40.
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________________ ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASURI COMMEMORATION VOLUME seen above, may have been non-Vedic in origin. When some of the Vedic Brahmanas were convinced of the Nivrttipara path or asceticism and left ritualism, the schools which accepted the authority of Vedas and also the superiority of Brahmanas by birth got slowly assimilated to the Vedic cult. Probably amongst Sramana sects, Sankhyas were the first to accept the authority of the Vedas and the superiority of Brahmanas by birth; and perhaps this may be the reason why we find Sankhya teachings reflected in the early Upanisads. 80 Whatever may be the case, this brief survey points out to one fact and that is that by the time of Mahavira and Buddha the Sramanas were a powerful influence affecting the spiritual and ethical ideas of the people. Even though by process of assimilation the Nivrtti outlook became common ideal both among the thinkers of the earlier Upanisads as well as among the Sramana thinkers, the fact of the Sramana thinkers (that is, Jainas and Bauddhas) rejecting the authority of Vedas, the superiority of Brahmanas by birth and their repugnance to animal-sacrifice as a form of worship, made them socially distinct and an antagonistic force with which the powerful and well-established Vedic sects had to contest. Here it may be noted that references in the earlier Buddhist Pitakas and Jaina Agamas as well as in Asoka's inscriptions to Sramana-Brahmana do not indicate any enmity but imply that both are regarded as respectable. It is only in Patanjali's Mahabhasya which is later than Asoka, that we find the compound Sramana-Brahmanam suggesting enmity. This may be the result of a contest of centuries between Sramanas and Brahmanas. Whether we accept this protestant-theory of the origin and rise of the Sramana or the theory of their independent pre-Vedic origin, one thing is clear that there was a great ferment of Sramana thought in or about the period of the earliest Upanisads and Aranyakas, i.e., about 800 B.C. As we have said above, the history of Jaina church also does not start with Mahavira but it goes as far back as Parsva, i.e., 800 B.C. The Jaina Agamas which are the earliest source for life and teachings of Mahavira point to one fact very clearly and that is that the Jnataputra Vardhamana had to make his way through a crowd of Sramana and Vedic "Titthiyas" or "Tirthikas". Another point which becomes clear from Agamas is that Vardhamana's method was to harmonise and assimilate as much of different contending sects as was consistent with his main ideal of Moksa. This peculiar trait of Mahavira's method seems to be
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________________ JETLY: HISTORICAL POSITION OF JAINISM responsible for giving his school the name and character of Anekantavada and Syadvada. The essence of these Vadas lies in harmonising the different ways of thought by regarding them as so many different points of viewing reality and grasping truth. This character of Jainism explains why throughout its history it has always studied carefully the religio-philosophical ideas of other schools and developed the Anekanta doctrine in relation to the growth of various Darsanas. RRT 3 G INEC Som .. 6 YV TEL. * TECH 40 km CURT W HITRI