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THEMES OF SOTERIOLOGICAL REFLECTION
IN JAINISM—I
I.i. PRELIMINARY REMARKS
Jainism is chiefly a soteriological system of religious culture. Its soteriology represents a developed and distinct form of an ancient Indian stream of ascetic thought which had originated among munis and śramaņas of non-Vedic antiquity. Another distinct and developed form of this stream of ascetic spirituality is represented by Buddhism. The history of these two systems of śramaņa thought documented in the course of their development a remarkable degree of agreement in ethical ideas and ascetic practices in spite of some fundamental differences between their metaphysical principles. This fact of agreement or correspondence between Jaina and Buddhist traditions is of considerable relevance to students of all forms of śramaņa thought. For example, one can fruitfully elucidate several terms and concepts of Jaina soteriology with the help of parallels drawn from Buddhist sources, and vice versa, Buddhist terms and concepts can be studied in the light of their Jaina parallels.
The philosophers of śramana tradition laid special emphasis on renunciation (tyāga) and transcendental emancipation (mokşa). These two elements of their tradition excercised a tremendous and lasting influence on almost all subsequent developments in the history of Indian thought and culture. It can be maintained without any fear of contradiction that the very idea of transcendental emancipation (mokşa, mukti, nirvāṇa, nirvștti, kaivalya, nihśreyas, apavarga) has come to us from the philosophy of renunciation cultivated by munis and śramaņas. The introduction of the ascetic stage of life (samnyāsa-āśrama) in the Brahmanical scheme of varņāśrama-dharma in the post-Buddhist period, and the growth of ascetic cults and Sadhuism in general during the medieval centuries, can hardly be explained without recourse to powerful background furnished by the movements of śramana thought in the classical period of
1. On the origin and nature of framana thought see G.C. Pande, Studies in the Origins of Buddhism
(1957), pp. 251ff.; L.M. Joshi, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Hinduism (1970), pp. 31ff; G.C. Pande Sramana Tradition : Its History and Contribution to Indian Culture (1978); L.M. Joshi, Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India, second edition (1977), pp. 328-330,
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