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JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
and even from caste to caste. This individualiy is, however, not confined to dress alone; it shows itself in speech, manners, diet, customs, art, etc. And though all these may form a synthesis which we describe as culture of a particular brand (Karnāțaka Culture, for instance), it is also possible to analyse its several elements and find therein traces of particular influences. Hence, out of the synthesis of Āryan and Dravidian in South Indian Culture, the worship of spirits, snakes, Māri-amma, and Murugan may be clearly marked out as Dravidian, while the worship of fire, Brahma, and the Vedic deities, as well as the Āryan philosophy and way of life, may equally be clearly. singled out. In like manner should it be possible and useful to find out and assess the contributions of Janism to Karnāțaka
Culture.
In the light of these observations, let us recount the distinctive features of Jainism as pointed out in an earlier chapter. Here it is well to remember that Jainism was meant to be not merely a philosophy', but also 'a way of life'. We have already shown, however, that in Karņāțaka (as perhaps also elsewhere ) it survived only as a philosophy and largely ceased to be a way of life. What happened to Aryanism or Vedism, in general, in the southern Dravidian atmosphere, also happened to Jainism, in particular. Confining its philosophic universalism to the books, it became sectarian in its mode of life. It absorbed into its own system or scheme of life most of the elements and characteristics of non-Jaina Karnataka, and by so doing it ceased to be distinctively Jaina. Except by the practice of not eating the supper after night-fall and the worship of nude images of the Tirthankaras, it is hardly possible to identify a Jaina in Karnataka from the rest of the people. His temples and festivals may be different, but their variation looks only sectarian, even as the Vaişnava might differ from the Saiva. But whatever be the position of the Jainas in Karnataka today, there is no gainsaying their contributions to Karnataka Culture in the past. Outwardly they consist of imparting a
| SR No. | 011062 |
| Book Title | Jainism and Karnataka Culture |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | S R Sharma |
| Publisher | Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar |
| Publication Year | 1940 |
| Total Pages | 263 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 9 MB |