Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

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GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
ancient texts of the Hindus, Pitakas of the Buddhists and Sutras of the Jains.
Accadian civilization of Chaldia which is said to have flourished over a thousand years before Neniveh and Babylon were founded. The Chinese too have a history which dates from about 2400 years B.C. The Hindus also have their own records. But there is a difference between the records of the Hindus and the records of other nations. The hieroglyphic records of ancient Egyptians yield little information beyond the names of kings and pyramid-builders and accounts of dynasties. The Cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria and Babylon tell us much the same story and even ancient Chinese records shed very little light on the gradual progress of human culture and civilization
Western scholars say that Vedas are the infant outpourings of the simple minded Aryans of ancient times. They also think that they constituted the popular literature of the time. I differ from these views; a literature is preeminently sacerdotal and in no senses a popular one. Neither in the language nor in the thought of the Rig Veda can we discover that quality of primitive natural simplicity which so many have failed to see in it. The poetry it contains is of a singularly refined character and artificially elaborated, full of allusions and reticence, of pretensions to mysticism and philosophical thought; and the manner of its expression is such as reminds one more frequently of the phraseology in use among certain small groups of initiated people than the poetic language of a large community. Nor is there any ground for supposing that the Vedas has taught us everything on the ancient social and religious condition of even Aryan or India or everything there can be accounted for by reference to it. The fact is that in past as in present other religions have coexisted alongside of Veda and some claim to have existed even before the Vedas. So that in order to understand the exact condition of India one has to depend not only on the Vedas but on the religious literature of the Jains and the Buddhists also.
Ancient Hindu Writings
Ancient Hindu writings are of a different character. They are defective no doubt on accounts of dynasties, of wars, of so-called historical incidents. On the other hand they give us a full, connected and clear account of the advancement of civilization, of the human mind, such are not found amongst the records of any other equally ancient nation. There are the
In Vedic literature we find that the main industry of the people representing that cult was agriculture, as nearly all the hymns are generally prayers to gods, allusions to trade and commerce being very rare. However there are numerous passages which indicate the existence of currency money for the purposes of buying and selling
There are distinct references of voyage by sea and shipwrecks. So far as the
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