Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

Page 69

( 62 )
The archaelogical researches have now difinitely proved the existence of a highly developed culture beside which the one reflected in the Vedas and Brahmanas looks rural if not primitive, Here I refer, of course, to the City culture of the Indus Valley.1 The existence of the images of Proto-Siva and Sakti in the monuments at Mohanjo-daro and Harappa points in the direction of the image-worship which was later on accepted by all Indian sects It should be noted here that in the Vedas there is very little evidence of the cult of image-worship
Similarly philologists have now shown that the Sanskrit language that was codified by Panini was not the pure Aryan Vedic language. Many non-Vedic words current in the languages of the different regions of this country were absorbed in the Sanskrit language with the assimilation of the different non-Vedic cults into Vedic cult. Here we are concerned with the word Pujana '3 used in the sense of worship The Vedic Aryans used the word 'Yajana' in the sense of their daily worship. They had no concern with image1. “Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Valley Civilisation”
by John Marshall. Vide description of plate
No. XII-17. 2. “Indo-Aryan and Hindi”, p. 64.