Jain Journal 1973 10

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

Page 23

The Jaina Contribution to Indian Political Thought
B. A. SALETORE
One of the most important sections of the Indian people to whom adequate justice has not been done, especially in the matter of evaluating their contribution to the totality of Indian History and Culture, is that comprising the Jainas. That this is no exaggeration will be evident when we open the pages of any standard book on Indian History only to find few paragraphs being devoted to the great and to some of the splendid monuments of architectural skill associated with the Jainas in some parts of the country. A good deal of noise has been made, and that of late, of the Buddhist contribution to Indian History and Culture, but practically nothing has been said of the more solid and more lasting contribution by the Jainas to the many-sided aspects of our life. It is commonly assumed that the Jainas were devoted to their religion and to their trade, and that they preserved the one and increased the other amidst varying circumstances of fortune and misfortune, and added practically nothing to the progress of the country. This is a misconception, especially in regard to the contribution of the Jainas to the political theories of India. I shall first narrate the theoretical aspect of the question, and then relate how one of the most celebrated Jaina theorists helped to formulate the ends of the State.
Before we do so, it is necessary that we should mention the sources on which we base our remarks. They are the Jaina literary sources the most ancient of which for our purpose, are the Jaina Sutras. The exact date of the composition of the Jaina Sutras "is a problem which cannot be satisfactorly solved". Professor Hermann Jacobi, who had thus opined on them in 1894, also said that most parts, tracts and treatises of which the canonical books consist, are old; that the redaction of the Angas took place at an early period (tradition placing it under Bhadrabahu); that the other works of the Jaina Siddhanta were collected in course of time, probably in the first centuries of the Christan era; and that additions and alterations may have been made in the canonical