Idea of Ahimsa and Asceticism in Ancient Indian Tradition

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

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THE IDEA OF AHIMSA ....
the thinking pattern in Upanisads and in other texts like MBH, etc. shows impacts on them of any alien features of tribal cultures, or of some non-Vedic Aryans, that means : vernacular Aryans who might be anti - or non-ritualists, or indifferent in rituals, or, the said thinking pattern was a sum-total of more than one culture, viz. Aryan and non-Aryan;- such and similar factors still need further studies in detail. Moreover, terminological differences in Brahmanism and the two reform religions were whether due to contemporary Indo-Aryan vernacularism, or, due to a mixture of Indo-Aryan and nonIndo-Aryan dialects or languages;- such and other relevant information is wanting (cf. Bhatt-1. inter alia). So far Jainism is concerned, I find no such differences, and if any, they are negligible - only terminological, on account of Indo-Aryan dialects, but not ideological (see further our foot-note 2 above). Strange names and terms are not the criteria to decide their non-Aryan character, unless they, as individual elements, are on by one intensively analysed, just as strange names or terms occuring in vedic or brahmanical texts. Before we proceed further on our issue, the readers are requested to refer to an article: "The Mythological Massacre at Mohen-jo-daro" by George F. Dales Rtambhara: Studies in Indology, Gaziabad 1986, pp.70-73) against the fantastic belief that Aryans destroyed the Indus Culture, and also an article: "The Background of Early Buddhism" by J.W. de Jong (D.D. Kosambi Commemoration Volume, Varanasi, 1977, pp.55-65) for a balanced approach to the problem concerned, as a gainst extreme views held by some scholars of Buddhist Studies. For a recent view against the proto-Siva interpretation of an Indus Valley /Harappan Seal, refer to Walter A. Faireservis, Jr. on G.L. Possehl's and M.H.Raval's "Harappan Civilization and Rojdi", Review in JAOS. 111.1, 1991 pp.108-113, especially p.112a, p.113b.
But Jainas quite repeatedly advocate Jainism to be a śramanic culture originated from the Indus Civilization. I do not wish to illustrate here how ridiculously and extravagantly they use their same age-old argumentation in support of their so-called bramanologism, without looking into pros and cons of its implication, and last, but not least, in almost all cases, without being conversant with modern scholarly views and theories coming into light through relevant researches, and by keeping themselves absolutely indifferent and unconcerned in such relevant essential matters ! Earlier germs of sramanologism or pre-Vedicism are found in the Kalpa ntara-vacyani (ca. 12th cent.) on which a Jaina monk Jinaprabha-muni wrote a commen