Nandisutt and Anuogaddaraim

SR No.: 001062
Original Sutra Author: Devvachak, Aryarakshit
Author: Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, Amrutlal Bhojak
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 764
Language: Prakrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Agam, Canon, Ethics, agam_nandisutra, & agam_anuyogdwar
File Size: 14 MB

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JAINA AGAMAS
The Jaina Agamas not Originated from the Vedas
There was a time when the Western as well as Indian scholars endeavoured to trace the origin of the entire Indian culture and of all the Indian religions in the Vedas only; this was done on the ground that the Vedas constitute the oldest literature of the world. But since the time of the discovery of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, the tendency of the scholars has changed. And they have come to believe that even before the arrival of the Aryans in India there existed in this land culture and religion in a considerably developed form2. With that has started the research to seek out the original Indian elements assimilated into the non-Indian Vedas-non-Indian because they are the creation of the Aryans, the outsiders who came to India. Not only that, the scholars are busy detecting in the entire Vedic tradition the elements which were originally non-Indian but which after having been intermixed with certain original Indian elements, have assumed an Indian form. This changed attitude in the study of Indian history and culture will lead, I am sure, to the discovery of historical truth.
Whatever might have been the number of the Aryan intruders it is certain that at that time it was not greater than that of the aborigines of India. It is true that the description of the Harappan culture as city culture and that of the culture of the Aryan intruders as nomadic culture does not present the complete picture of these two cultures, but for our purpose it will do.
The culture and skill we find in the people who live a settled life in cities, towns and villages is not possible in the case of nomads. This suggests that the indigenous people of India were culturally more advanced than the new-comers. The Aryan culture is predominantly reflected in the Vedas and the Brahmanas. But the post-Brāhmaṇa Vedic literature abounds in non-Aryan elements. So, if any one wishes to form a clear picture of how the Aryan's assimilated Indian culture one should examine this post-Brāhmaṇa Vedic literature, viz. the Aranyakas, the Upanisads, the Dharmasastras, the Smrtis, etc.
The early scholars sought to trace the origin of the new aspects coming to the fore in the Aranyakas, etc. in the Vedas and the Brahmanas. But the scholars of the present day, having discarded that wrong attitude, have already started to look for that origin in the non-Vedic tradition. Once it was a current belief that the Jaina
2. Dr. R. N. Dandekar, Indian Pattern of Life and Thought-A Glimpse of its Early Phases,-Indo-Asian Culture, July, 1959, p. 47