Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 105

A Brief Survey of a Long Tradition
85
be pinned down and located, even though only very approximately, in time.
History
History, understood here as being that of the dharma in its social context, relies upon a knowledge of the facts related to the dharma, to its coming into being and development, its influence and its vitality or decline. This knowledge is based on certain authentic, though often widely dispersed, documents, which are also sometimes highly condensed and take into consideration only one or two aspects of a happening, because all the rest have vanished or remain fragmentary. The documents act as firm pointers which are of assistance, if not in reconstructing the facts, at least in revealing the inter-connecting links between the various documents, and in allowing us to perceive the continuity of the dharma.
With regard to the subject which is of special interest to us, we must from the start specify both our way of approach to it and the type of documents we have used and quoted. Our approach consists in an endeavour always to call forth in its totality the religious, cultural and social context of the local dharma at a given epoch, namely, that in which the sadhvis were living. Even the smallest clue such as a solitary inscription needs to be placed in its proper context.
The documents in question are: - firstly, the texts of Scripture, both the most ancient ones which belong to the original dharma, the first vehicles of the message, and also those which followed and are far more detailed;46
46 Mention must be made at this point of Early Jainism by Dixit, 1978, an indispensable reference-book for a knowledge of early Jainism and one to which we shall make frequent reference. It is a noteworthy fact that the reformed sects have, precisely, attempted a return to the origins and that large numbers of sadhvis belong to these sects. Our introduction to the Svetāmbara Agamas and the chief Digambara texts occurs at a period of history corresponding to the beginning of our era, the period in which the schism between the two major branches of the dharma took place; one of the causes of the conflict was in fact connected with Scripture.