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Bhāratz
their early relation to Brāhmaṇical schools as well as the historical developments of their churches. I shall limit myself to Jainas though the general problem of the rise of Sramaņas pertains to all the Sramaņa sects.
The Sūtrakstānga1 of Jainas and the Brabmajāla-Suttaa of Bauddhas refer to a great number of sects other than their own. Some of these may be Vedic while the others are non-Vedic and Sramaņa. Of these sects the historicity of the three Sramaņa sects, viz. those of Jainas, Bauddhas and Ājivakas is generally accepted by the scholars.
There is however a controversy about the origin of these Sramaņa sects. The older view is that these Sramaņa 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 Vedas including Brāhmaṇas and Upanişads. The canonical works of Jainas and Bauddhas are much later and assume the existence of the 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 Sramaņa sacred texts has given birth to the hypothesis of the independent origin of these Sramaņa sects. Not only that, but this study has also suggested the possibility of some of the Vedic sects like Sivism, schools like Sānkhya-Yoga and some of the Bhakti cults being non-Vedic in origin. The bases of this hypothesis are the latest archaeo
1 Sut. refers to the creeds prevalent in the time of Mahavira, They are
(1) f ata, (2) 3fats, (3) rats and (4) fariyat, The same Sut. states that these four great creeds comprise 363 schools. Vide Sut. I-xii-1 also cf. Sth. 4-4-35, Bhag. 30-1-825, Uttar, 18-23 and
Nāndi 47. 2 BJS. in DN enumerates 62 schools under the chief eight heads viz.
(1) Thaifa, (2) arteft*, (3) tarafa, (4) 37#farà94, (5) affa49c9f45, (6) Jamraf74, (7) 3780aifa and (8) faguraftFarafa DN 1-12-39, also cf. Syt. 1-2. It enumerates (1) #sara, (2) Fahr995, (3) fanfaars, (4) açorar, (5) Haara, (6) gegara, and (7) Saarats It should be noted that according to the works of the Jaina canon referred to all the five Vädas excepting uçotats and भतवाद come under the head of क्रियावाद while except भतवाद all the six come under the head of 3fat. For the detailed study vide SSJL by A. C. Sen.
