Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

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three Sramana sects, viz. those of Jainas, Buddhists and Ajivakas is generally accepted by the scholars.
There is. however, a controversy about the origin of these Sramana sects. The older view is that these Sranana sects were more or less so many protests against the orthodox Vedic cult.
The strongest argument in favour of this view is that our oldest extant literature comprises of vedas including Brahmanas and Upanisads. The canoncial works of Jainas and Bauddhas are much later and presuppose the existence of Vedas and Vedism. Naturally, therefore, one becomes inclined to regard these sects represented by later literature as in some way related to the older Vedism.
However, a more critical and thorough examination of the Vedic as well as of Sramana sacred texts has given birth to the hypothesis of the independent origin of these Sramana sects. Not only that but this study has also suggested the possibility of some of the Vedic sects like Saivism, schools like Sankhya-Yoga and some of the Bhakti cults being non-Vedic in origin. The bases of this hypothesis are the latest archeological researches, philological findings and also the literary evidences. Let us briefly review these diffrent sources of the history,