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JAIN: THE NOTION OF DHARMA IN JAINISM: A COMPARATIVE VIEW
191 The uppermost concern of the Vedic seer was to understand Rta or the cosmic order and to know the truth through dharma in the form of Vedic yajña and penance (tapah)11 etc. Řta, satya and dharma all the three are thus synonymous terms. 12
The above given 13 definition is born as a fruit of dharma. The general definition given by Manu, runs as follows:
Study of the Veda and Smrti, righteous conduct and satisfaction of the self, these are the four tests of true
religion. 14 These are some of the definitions of dharmain the Hindu tradition alone. This is sufficient to prove that the notion of dharma in the Indian tradition as a whole cannot be fitted into any frame of definitions; and the ritualistic aspect of dharma often accepted as synonymous of religion is in fact quite far from it. Hence we will prefer the word dharma, in place of religion.
The characteristics of dharma and its practical forms have been discussed at inexhaustible lengths in the sacred books of the Hindus, including the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata. At this juncture it would be pertinent to note that the dharma of the Upanişads is Ātmadharma i.e. the search for truth and realization of the ParabrahmaParamātman, which is the Ātman itself. The dharma of the Gitā is spirituality and Loka-dharma (dharma of the common people) superimposed by spirituality. The Mahābhārata emphasizes more on the practical aspects of life, while the Rāmāyana preaches the highest ideals of it. The characters of the Mahābhārata strike us as human beings, whereas those in the Rāmāyana have been idealised.
It is now a widely known and accepted fact that popular Hinduism has, through its long sojourn of the millenia upto and many centuries after Christ, amalgamated and synthesized in its body-frame all important elements of the ancient Vedico-Brahmanic sacred literature, as well as popular themes, doctrines and moral principles of Jainism and Buddhism.
This may be noted that Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are not being referred here in their chronological order. Of this we will talk later. 11. Řtam ca satyam ca abhiddhāt tapaso adhyajāyata Rgueda 10.190. 12. Vide above page 2. 13. ibid., fn. 5. 14. Vedah smrti sadācārah suasya ca priyamātmanah; etaccaturvidha-prähuh
säksād-dharmasya laksanam Manusmrti 2, 12.
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