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History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā
stress on man's purity and on his conquest of the body and the senses. 31 The moral injunctions prohibiting the eating of animal foods, drinking, gambling, hunting, stealing, adultery and debauchery produced high-souled men and women from the Jaina laity who became role models for the Indian society.**2
Numerous Jaina monks were held in admiration because of their noble, austere, selfless and scholarly life even by the Muslim rulers. It is a different matter that their lives did not inspire them. Many Svetāmbara and Digmbara monks were honoured by Muslim rulers like Muhammad Ghori, Alauddin Khalji, Muhammad Tughlaq, Firoz Tughlaq and Sikandar Sur.333 Akbar was deeply influenced by Jainism. His son Jahangir issued orders for the protection of Satruñjaya, and conferred the title mahātapā on Jaina scholar Vijayadeva Sūri and the title yugapradhän on the Jaina monk Jinasimha Sūri.334
PHILOSOPHY Jainism has made a significant contribution in the field of philosophy also. In the field of philosophy the greatest contribution of Jainism is Anekāntavāda or the theory of Indefiniteness of Being, and a dialectical method called Syādvāda, which upholds this theory. Jainism attaches such importance to this method that Syāduāda is frequently used as a synonym for it.335 Anekāntavāda and Syādvāda have elicited high praise from Indian and foreign scholars.
MONASTIC SYSTEM
The monastic rule is Jainism's greatest creation.336 It is a severe rule which is dominated by the conception of non-violence, a conception probably
331. HOIC, I, p. 162. 332. Ibid., p. 164 333. HJM. p. 135. 334. Ibid., p. 136. 335. ERE, VII, p. 468. 336. ROAI, p. 125.
