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24 Jaina Religion: Its Historical journey of evolution
religions are generally painted as those who revolted against Vedic religions. It is true that Vedic and Sramana traditions have some basic issues on which they differ. This is also true that Jaina and Buddhist traditions openly opposed those deformities of Vedic tradition which emerged as perpetrators of religious exploitations of lower classes by the Brahmins through priesthood, ritualism and castism. But we should understand this not in the form of revolt but in the form of reform in Indian culture. The Jaina and the Buddhist traditions have acted as medical practitioners in cleansing Indian culture and making it healthy. It has to be kept in mind that a doctor is never an enemy, but a friend. Unfortunately, Indian thinkers influenced by western thinkers and to an extent Jaina and Buddhist thinkers also, started believing that Jaina and Vedic religions are mutually opposed but it is a wrong notion. Even though in their original form Vedic and Sramanic cultures might have been different from each other, today, neither is Hindu tradition completely Vedic in that sense nor are Jaina and Buddhist traditions completely Śramanic. Today, Hindu religion or Jaina and Buddhist religions in their present forms are mixed forms of both Vedic and Áramana cultures. It is a different matter that they still have pravịtti and nivrtti
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