Jain Journal 1972 01

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

Page 31

Revival of Sramana Dharma in the
Later Vedic Age
(Continued from the previous issue)
Jyoti PRASAD JAIN
Krsna Vasudeva was one of the sixty-three most auspicious personages of the Jaina tradition. Ethnologists believe that he was, if not an outright non-Aryan, at least a semi-Aryan. He was the originator of Krsnaism (form of Bhagavatism) which is similar and nearer to Jainism in its origin and is said to be a clear example of the rise of an anti-Brahmanic cult in the non-Brahmanic and clearly non-Aryan environment. In the Rgveda, he, it is said, is spoken of as a leader of non-Aryan tribe, 3 but a definite reference, and perhaps the earliest, occurs in the Chàndogya Upanisad (Pr. 3, Kh. 17—dated the second half of the first millennium B.C.), wherein he is said to have developed in his own teachings a number of ideas, adopted by him from his mentor, the wise Ghora Angirasa. There are scholars who hold that this Ghora Angirasa was none else but Neminatha (Aristanemi), the Jaina Tirthankara,5 who, as stated before, was first cousin to Krsna.
: Up till a few decades ago, historicity of Aristanemi had been doubted by modern historians who usually fixed the upper limit of the beginnings
India's history proper about the 6th century B.C. But now, when that limit has been raised to the end of the Mahabharata War, generally
1 Guseva, N. R. : Jainism, (Bombay, 1971), pp. 15-19. 9 lbid., pp. 15, 19. 3 Ibid., p. 18. 4 lbid., p. 15; The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV, p. 37. 5 Kausambi, D.: Bharatiya Sanskrti aur Itihas, pp. 5-57 ; Sramana, May 1971,
pp. 13-14.