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Jaina Religion: Its Historical journey of evolution
Indian culture would be incomplete without a proper study and research of other traditions and their mutual relationships. Religion and culture do not grow or develop in a vacuum. They assume their status with the influences of the country, place, time and contemporary traditions. If we have to study and understand Jaina, Buddhist, Vedic or any other Indian cultural tradition we have to study it in its various aspects, time, space and related persp-ective in an authentic and objective manner. Whether it is a study of Jainology or any other branch of Indology we have to know other traditions as well, and we must see how it is influenced by other contemporary traditions and how it has influenced others. Such interactive forces have to be taken into account without which no study is complete.
It is true that we find traces of Śramanic and Vedic cultures in the history of Indian culture right from the very beginning, but we should remember that in Indian culture both these streams are merged with each other and cannot be separated. The two streams have mutually influenced each other right from the very beginning of Indian history. Though we can see them separately at the intellectual level on the basis of their own individual characteristics, however, on the practical plane they cannot be separated. Rgveda is the oldest of Indian scriptures.
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