Jainthology

SR No.: 006577
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 294
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 8 MB

Page 40

we find also the clearing of forests and their transformation into arable and pasture land -- which, again, would have been impossible on a wide scale without the iron axe and spade. But with this there also came a rapid increase of the population and dense populations in small areas."38
It is to be observed that Rşabhadeva taught his people one hundred38 arts and crafts for solving their economic problems and upholding the social order.
The picture of the evolution of mankind through the infancy of the human race and Kulakarism to the dawn of civilization as depicted in the Jaina Āgamas compares well with "the picture of the evolution of mankind through savagery and barbarism to the beginnings of civilization"37 as sketched by F. Engels. Engels generalizes Morgan's periodization as follows:
“Savagery-the period in which the appropriation of natural products, ready for use, predominated; the things produced by man were, in the main, instruments that facilitated this appropriation. Barbarismthe period in which knowledge of cattle breeding and land cultivation was acquired, in which methods of increasing the productivity of nature through human activity were learnt. Civilization -- the period in which knowledge of the further working up of natural products, of industry proper, and of art was acquired."38
According to the Jaina tradition as found in the Āgamas, the periodization of the evolution of mankind can be made in agreement with the generalization of F. Engels in this manner : (1) Infancy of the human race the period in which there was the predominance of the appropriation of natural products for use, (2) Kulakarism - the period in which the knowledge of domestication of animals and cattle-breeding and cultivation of land was acquired, the men learnt the methods of increasing the productivity of nature through human activity and (3) Civilization, the period in which they acquired knowledge of the further working up of natural products, of industry proper, and of art.
| October 72, January 73 ]
35 36 37 38
Ibid. p. 28. Avasyaka-curni, Pt. I. p. 156. The Origin of the Family, etc., p. 28. Ibid., pp. 28-29.
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