Mahavira Smruti Granth Part 01

SR No.: 010530
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamtaprasad Jain, Others
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Society Agra
Total Pages: 363
Language: Hindi
Classification: Smruti_Granth
File Size: 9 MB

Page 288

२६४
भ० महावीर स्मृति-ग्रंथ।
claims. The Jains bave sufered heavily. They have made great sacrifioe for the country and they are in this free India capable of making a splendid contribution to the enrichment of Indian culture, trade, commerce and material progress. It may therefore be noted that the appreciation of Jain Law yould 11 no way be detrimental to the national unity.
We can visualise the time when particularsisms will be swept out of existence and mankind will realise itself as a unity But this unity should include scope for distinctive types of human culture and philosophy, proved by their historical survival These cultures have to be preserved through the transition The only way of doing so is to recognise them legally at any rate, remove the legal disabilities to which the Jains are subject at present, though such pleatings may sound to be contradictory to the aforesaid spirit of the times.
As long as Hindu Law continues to be applied to the Jains, who swear by different scriptures and who do not abide by the Vedas and who do not reco. gaise Hindu Purāns, it becomes the duty of the Jains in such matters to plead for a different criterion to be applied to them in consonance with their own accepted scriptures social usages and customs have been accepted as prabis by different High Courts,
It is a great pity that due weight has not yet been given to the common and sound rule that a man must be governed by his own personal law Even the old generations of Jains thought it sacrilegious to bring their scriptures in the Las Courts The natural result was that the Courts decided the Jain cases according to Hindu scriptures and have been following the same rule even upto this date
With these introductory remarks, I shall amplify the point of antiquity and independent nature of Jainism to streogthen my case for Jain Code.
Jainism prospered not only in pre-Vedic times but even prior to that as can be seen from the following extracts In the life of Lord Rishabhadeva FREÇOITT Shri C R. Jain, Bar-at-law, remarks --
"The Jain chronology places ( THE ) Rishabhadeva at an almost immeasurable antiquity in the past but the Hindus who recognise the guide is one of the incamation of Vishnu, hold that no less than twenty-eight cycles (TTT) hasc elapsed since Hus time. He flourished very very far back in the hoariest of hoary antiquity and that He was prior to all systematised forms of
religion
Admittedly there are references in Rig Vedic hymns to siggurance the founder of Jainism and also to Ansta-Nemi, the 22nd Tirthankara who is a Cousin of Shri Krishna The life of Rishabhadeva given in Bhagwata and Vishu Purāna tallies with that of Jain Puranas. Besides from the cxcavated