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________________ JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA during periods of severe affliction; for, as Professor Jacobi has pointed out long ago, there can be little doubt that the most important doctrines of the Jaina religion have remained practically unaltered since the first great separation in the time of Bhadrabahu, about 300 BC. And although a number of less vital rules concerning the life and practices of the monks and laymen, which we find recorded in the holy scriptures, may have fallen into oblivion or disuse, there is no reason to doubt that the religious life of the Jaina community is now substantially the same as it was two thousand years ago. It must be confessed from this that an absolute refusal to admit changes has been the strongest safeguard of the Jainas." 1 It is doubtful if this conservative nature can any more help the Jama community as it stands now. To a student of presentday contemporary religions it would seem otherwise. In conservatism he would see signs of intoleration, stagnation and religious hypocrisy. From dedicatory inscriptions and other records Sir Charles Elliot may conclude: "We learn from these records that the sect comprised a great number of schools and divisions. We need not suppose that the different teachers were necessarily hostile to one another, but their existence testifies to an activity and freedom of interpretation which have left traces in the multitude of modern sub-sects" 2 But one thing is certain, that these different teachers have, in trying to grind their own axes, disregarded the general good of the whole Jaina community. Colonel Tod has rightly remarked: "Tapa - Gaccha and Kharatara-Gaccha did much more harm than the Islamites to destroy all records of the past "3 Well, the same thing may be said of the Digambara and the Svetambara divisions of the Jainas. Their attitude towards each other, both in the past and as it is now, does in no way do any justice to the followers of Lord Mahavira One need not be misunderstood if one were to express one's fears that if this aggressive attitude and mutual distrust amongst the existing divisions in the Jaina community were to go on at this rate a tme may come when the Jainas may have to share the same fate as that of their brothers, the Buddhists than the Saccha ann "3 Want 1 Charpentier, op cit, p 169 Cf Jacobi, 2.D MG, XXXVIII, pp 17 ff * Ellot, op al, p 113 * Tod, Travels in Western India, 284
| SR No. | 011067 |
| Book Title | Jainism in North India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Chimanlal J Shah |
| Publisher | Longmans Green and Compny London |
| Publication Year | 1932 |
| Total Pages | 66 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 3 MB |