Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

Author(s): Bansidhar Bhatt
Publisher: B J Institute

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1. INTRODUCTION
(a) Relevant remarks:
Let me, in the beginning, sincerely thank the Executive Committee and particularly Sheth Shri Chinubhai, the President of the Committee and Professor Dr. Pravinchandra Parikh, Director of the B.J. Research Institute (Ahmedabad) and Prof. Dr. Smt. Bharatiben Shelat, for inviting me to deliver some lectures for the Lecture Series of the year 1993. I was little embarrassed when I received this kind invitation in early January this year and could not decide about any special theme for the Lecture Series, due to the fact that the time at my disposal was too short hardly a month to give proper justice to it. I had, therefore, to rely for some plausible grounds, on the present theme of ahimsa and asceticism, though abundant material more than sufficent number of articles and books dealing with this theme at length has come to light in India and abroad since the last sixty years from the Vedic scholars or Indo - European philologists, and especially from the scholars on Jainism and Buddhism by means of fully utilizing some observations on the Indus Valley culture. Most of the works still appearing on the subject shed hardly any new light on the problem, but repeat more or less some age-old arguments favouring their interest and basing their conjectures on some working hypotheses of rudimentary stages.
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I wish to offer here some views set forth through modern researches on the subject, and to the best of my knowledge, though these views would have probably reached India, but it seems, most of our scholars hardly bothered much to get themselves oriented in such modern research material as a whole. This is true so far as the complicated issue of ahimsa and asceticism is concerned. Moreover, I had earlier worked out on the subject and the matter was almost ready with me. I, therefore, wish to represent it faithfully in my lectures, so that it would be at least some contribution aiming at bringing historical facts to light and wiping away some misinterpretations and mis-representations prevailing generally among most of the Indians. I will feel myself contended if my effort as a whole would be proved worthy of further enlightenment.
First, coming to the theme of ahimsa as an ethical concept in Indian religious traditions, it involves variety of complicated issues which will be evident in course of these lectures. I will,