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१३८
अनुसन्धान ५० (२)
स्वलिंगसिद्ध
Mithyātva-gunsthāna. (ii) While explaining Siddhahood, Uttarādhyayana mentions, 'स्त्रीलिंगसिद्ध अन्यलिंगसिद्धा' 14 The gender and sectarian bias is thus overcome by this categorization, (iii) In the early centuries of Christian era, Jainas develop a format or model of 54 Mahāpuruṣas or 63 Śalākāpuruṣas. They categorized the influential or illustrious personalities into Tirthamkaras, Vasudevas, Baladevas, Cakravartins etc. 15 The famous Hindu Puranic personalities like Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Balarama, Jarāsaṁdha, Bharata Cakravarti etc. got their 'space' in Jaina environment. This allinclusive tendency must have created a harmony with the Hindu brethren.
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E: The Model to Remove Social Injustice.
This model emerges rightly from the philosophical concept of 'Jiva' in Jainism. Jivas or individual souls are infinite16, each separate from the other. The transmigratory souls go through the cycle of births and deaths according to their own Karmans. The Jainas do not believe in any creator God, so the classes and castes are created by human beings and not by God. Basically all Jivas possess same status and are equally eligible for one's spiritual progress. On this philosophical ground Jainas tried to remove the class-barriers and caste-conflicts. The views on Aśramas and Jātis are reflected in many texts like Uttaradhyayana.17 In Jaina tradition, Svetämbaras have conferred the same religious and spiritual status to woman folk. In Jaina Samgha, right from Rṣabhanatha, Sadhus, Sadhvis, Śravakas and Śrāvikas are enjoying equal rights.18 Jainas give equal status to women but in practice, even today, Sadhvis enjoy inferior status than Sadhus. A reform is taking place, but the pace of the reform is very slow.
One more observation is very noteworthy under this model that the literacy rate in Jain women is comparatively very high.
Jain Education International 2010_03
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