Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 50

Contribution of Jainism
to Philosophy
A Hindu story-teller tells us that once upon a time in India, four friends, a sculptor, a painter, a weaver and a Brahmin, decided to travel from place to place and see the country. In the absence of railways and stage-coaches, they travelled on foot. After passing through a thick forest, when night fell, they halted under a tree on the banks of a river. Life and property not being secure, they decided that each one of them should, for three hours, keep watch. First came the turn of the sculptor. To while away his time, he fetched a huge piece of wood which he saw at a distance and made a statue of it. At the end of three hours he retired. It was the
* Extract from a speech by the well-known Jaina
scholar, the late Shri Virchand B. Gandhi on Monday, 21, May, 1900 at the meeting of the East India Association held at Westminister Town Hall.