Introducing Jainism

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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INTRODUCING JAINISM
for the study of Jainism as a whole. It is a fact worth noting that the Svetāmbara texts are written in Ardhamāgadhi, while the present day Digambara texts are in Sauraseni. In both cases, texts are either in prose, or in verse, or in prose and verse mixed. In course of time, a large literature of glosses and commentaries (Niryukti Cūrņi, Țikā) has grown up round the Agama texts of both the sects. Besides these, the Jains possess separate works in close material agreement with the former works, which contain systematic expositions of their faith in Prakrit and Sanskrit. Gradually, the Jains have covered all branches of literature, such as, cosmogony and cosmology, Theogony and Philosophy, folk-lore and tradition, tales and stories, ornate kāvyas, dramas, grammar and so on. All these books will tell us all about Jainism.
One of the greatest contributions of Mahāvira in his age is his idea of preaching the religious sermons in a spoken language, a práctice which was never followed by anybody before him. At the time of Mahāvīra, Sanskrit was probably used for all sorts of communications - be it a general conversation or an ecclesiastical one. Mahāvīra broke the tradition and realised the value of a spoken language as a vehicle of religious discourses. The language in which he preached his religious doctrines was Ardhamāgadhī, one of the dialects of Prakrit, a name given to the Middle Indian languages, whose uninterrupted literary documents had come down to us from the time of Mahāvira down to the 15th century A.D. covering a period of twenty hundred years. Later on, his doctrnes were codified by his disciples and followers in Ardhamāgadhi. Mahāvīra won the admiration of the common people for speaking in their own language.
iv) Position of Jainism after the nirvāņa of Mahāvīra
After the death of Mahāvīra, the history of Jainism for a few centuries practically means 'little more than the history of the Jain Church'.26 Later on, the Church organisation became very complex. At the time of Mahāvīra, some of his followers started dissenting from his opinion. Gosāla's
26. Majumdar, History and Culture of the Indian people, Vol-II, (The
Age of Imperial Unity), p. 415.