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The Doctrines of the Jainas
All the species are respected in it, not only those which have an immediate bearing on the canonical writings that is to say, the dogmatic, the moral, the polemic and the apologetic—but also history and legend, epic and romance and lastly the sciences, such as astronomy and above all sciences like astrology and divination.
In the realm of art, the elaborately carved friezes in the cave temples and dwellings on the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Hills, the richly decorated Ayaga patas and Toranas of the Mathura find, the beautiful free-standing pillars on the mountain masses of Girnar and Satrunjaya, the admirable architecture of the Jaina temples of Mount Abu and elsewhere, and the pictorial remains evolved under the austere influence of Jainism are sufficient to 'evoke the interest of any student of Indian history. They combine in them the Triune Entity of Indian art-a sublime union of the purely decorative, the realistic and the purely spiritual. In the words of Dr. Guerinot, “The Hindi art owes to them a great number of its most remarkable monuments. In the domain of architecture, they have reached a degree of perfection which leaves them without a rival."1
In conclusion, if Ahimsa may be generalised as the fundamental ethical virtue of Jainism, Syadvada may be described as the central and unique feature of Jaina metaphysics, and the explicit denial of the possibility of a perfect being from all eternity with the message of “Man! thou art thine own friend," as the centre round which circles the Jaina ritual. All this combined with the ideal of Ahimsa teaches :
1. Guerinot, La Retigion Djaina, p. 279.
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