Jain Journal 1971 01

SR No.: 520021
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1971
Total Pages: 54
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 12

106
JAIN JOURNAL
Enough has been said above of the extent of killing animal life both for food and as a religious rite in ancient India. Let us conclude this topic with some glimpses of conditions that prevailed in Asoka's times, i.e., nearly two and a half centuries after Mahavira and Buddha. Asoka says in Rock Edict 1 that in his palace kitchen "many hundred thousands of animals were killed everyday for the sake of curry”. Making due allowance for the flowery exaggeration in respect of the number, this statement gives us a contemporary picture of the general food habits of men of means. In Rock Edict 4 he says “In times past, for many hundreds of years, ever increased the killing of animals and the hurting of living beings". In Rock Edict 8 is said "In times past, kings used to go out on pleasure-tours. In these, hunting and similar other amusements took place”.
We must recall gratefully all the steps Asoka took for preventing cruelty to animals, for the first time by a historical king in India, not merely because he was a Buddhist. He was deeply interested in the teachings as well as in the welfare of all the other religious sects as well, and he repeatedly declared in his Edicts ; among these sects, next to the followers of Vedic Brahmanism, the Jainas (Nirgranthas as he calls them by their older name) were the most prominent and numerically the largest. He made large gifts to all sects and paid honours to all of them ; he appointed special Ministers called Dharma Mahamatras not only for the Buddhists but for looking after the welfare of the Jainas and other sects as well (Rock Edicts 7 and 12 ; Pillar Edict 7), and as we have already noted, the teaching of Ahimsã was preached by the Jainas long before the emergence of Buddhism.
Of the “Dharma” as preached by Asoka, an important item was Ahimsā, e.g., "Non-killing of animals is commendable” (Rock Edict 3); “Has now been promoted by the Dharma instructions of the Beloved of the gods, king Priyadarsin (i.e., Asoka himself), the non-killing of animals, non-hurting of living beings”, etc. (Rock Edict 4); "Therein (i.e. in Dharma) these take place ... non-killing of animals” (Rock Edict 11); "These are the Dharma regulations as have been ordered by me—these various animals are inviolable', etc.” (Pillar Edict 7).
In addition to preaching Ahimsā, Asoka took these positive measures to enforce it in actual practice, viz., he forbade the killing of any living being for sacrificial purposes (Rock Edict 1). Let us not overlook the hostile reaction that this order must have produced among