Jain Journal 1990 01

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

Page 43

106
dramas, etc. always utilised for this purpose as the tensions and the strains were relieved; and human energies were directed in the new hopes and confidence. Their functions are to promote the social intercourse and security, which are needed in the society.16 In such devices, rituals express most deeply rooted hopes, fears and the emotions of the community. They belong to the same order of reality, as poetry, art and music, and express the inner quality of the life.17 It is, therefore, the art and rituals were closely linked in Greece and Egypt, as they had social urges. The rite in Greek is called a 'thing done' which involves imitation too.18 In Indian tradition also, art is linked with the rituals, as changed story of Vikramorvasiya reflects the transition from rituals to the drama.19
All such performances, which represent age of the collective life, can be developed into the scientific social life, processed by the socialization, not harming to the individuality. A ritualist, to a modern mind, is a man concerned perhaps unduly with fixed forms and ceremonies with carrying out the rigidly prescribed ordinances of a church or sect,20 but a scientific approach can create new life in it if the 'form' is not allowed to bypass its 'contents'.
JAIN JOURNAL
The rites are variously classified as magical religious, positivenegative, attractive-avertive, participative-ascatic etc.21 The Jainism too has all sorts of such rites and even might occupies an important place in the Jaina literature. Some of the Jainas of Rajasthan were considered as magicians.22 Every sect of Jainas has its own peculiar rites, just as the Svetambaras have sixteen main marriage rites as well as Digambaras have twenty,23 apart from other rites. From the birth to death of a Jaina, several types of rites take place individually or socially. For instance, to bind a thread round the neck of a little mite, chaṭṭhipūjā naming, hair-cutting (mundana) and other ceremonies, wedding, etc.; and, at last, the death ceremonies are common in them, like Hindus. All the rites are not necessarily religious. Apart from these rites, the conduct-based rites such as the vows, vratas, pratimas etc. are usually
16 James E. O., Myths and Ritual in Ancient India, pp. 29, 284. 17 Reik Theodor, Ritual: Psycho-analytic Studies, pp. 305 309. 18 Harission Jain, Ancient Art and Ritual, pp. 9, 21, 25, 26, 35.
19 Kosambi D. D., Myth and Reality, pp. 42.
20 Harission, Ibid., 9.
21 Hastings, Ibid., (Worship), p. 754.
22 Sangve V. A., Jain community: A Social Survey, p. 257. 23 Ibid., p. 165.