Ahimsa and Jainism

Author(s): Vijayvallabhsuri
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi

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we are today faced with the prospects of a third with nuclear weapons, which may annihilate the human race. How can we feel for aquatic or aerial creatures, while we are callous about the human race itself ?
For the very survival of mankind and the welfare of all beings, we may profitably study the history and philosophy of Jainism, recorded in the popular Prakrit languages used by the seers and prophets of Jainism, a few centuries before the Buddha, who knew Mahavira, the last Tirthankara, as a senior contemporary (6th century B. C.)
India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Japan and Thailand are celebrating the 2,500th anniversary of the Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha. The Sakyamuni belonged to the small republic of the Sakya clan, and he greatly appreciated the republican constitution of the Vajji clan (Vajjidharma ) who shared, with the Licchavis, the great Republic of Vaisali (the modern Basarh in Muzzafarpur District, Bihar ). Here was born (c. 600 B. C. ), from another Kshatriya clan, Nathaputra Vardhamana, renowned later on as Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism. He originally belonged to the Nirgrantha (bondless) sect founded by the 23rd prophet Parasvanatha, a scion of the King of Kashi, who fourished c. 800 B. C., when