Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 103

Conclusions 89
compromise in this respect without abrogating the whole import of the canonical doctrine of ahimsa - as evidence of the need to construct a common doctrinal framework in which both ways of life are justified without nullifying each other by too close a contact. (The ascetic's authoritative reference remains, of course, the canon and/or the tradition which is embodied in ascetic practice.)
It may be that this process goes hand in hand with the need for the Jaina community to live in concord with Brahmanical society as a whole, while retaining its individuality. The reaction against Brahmanism evidenced in the canonical texts is a reaction of ascetics against specific Brahmanical practices. But for the laity to survive, there was an increasing need to over-code Jaina behaviour and doctrine to present a more Brahmanical front, while at the same time preserving the true purport of Jaina teachings. The beginning of this process may perhaps be seen in the development of the guṇasthāna theory, which, in terms of its function, seems analogous to the orthodox āśrama doctrine. The culmination comes with Jinasena's attempts to integrate the Hindu samskāras into Jaina lay practice in his Adipurāṇa (perhaps written to justify an already existing state of affairs).18 But it is in Umāsvāti's Tattvärtha Sutra that the first real attempt is made to present Jaina doctrine as an autonomous religious system which includes both monks and laity, rather than simply the teachings of a heterodox renouncer. It is here that one first has the sense of a community being addressed, rather than a collection of individual monks. And it is here too that Jainism can be seen consciously addressing outsiders. In other words, it now turns to face the wider Indian religious world which surrounds and threatens to infiltrate it.
With the works ascribed to Kundakunda we find Jainism somewhere near the centre of this terrain, subject to both internal and external pressures and developing social
18
See JPP p. 291ff., and R. Williams 1963, pp. 274-275.