Jain Journal 2004 10

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

Page 21

JAIN RELIGION AND SOCIETY (YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW)
Dr. V. P. Jain
Yesterday
Jainism is one of the oldest living religions of the world. In the context of our own country, no page of Indian history and culture in any way and at any age for the past 3000 years, if not more, can be well-written without making reference to the Jain tradition and its contribution to them.
Right from the beginnings of the Indus Valley culture, remnants of the Shramanic-tradition, numerous references to Bh. Rşabhadeva in the Rgveda, other Vedic literature, later Hindu religious tradition, the Upanișadic thought and Vedants, the Vaişņava Bhagavat Dharma, and the acceptance of non-violence as the universal-dharma, can best be understood in the light of the Jain religious tradition.
Buddha and Mahāvīra were foremost in their condemnation of the ancient Indian caste-system. They were also the leaders in imparting equal social and religious status to women in the later Vedic period, and also in making efforts to eradicate the system of slavery and social discriminations of high and low etc.
The development of Indian languages from the Vedic to the modern Indian national languages and regional dialects can never be understood, but for the study of the Prakrits and Apabhraíías so well used, preserved and developed by the Jain Ācāryas and other Jain authors through Jain literature in Prakrits, Apabhraisas and almost all regional languages and dialects of the country. Southern languages of the Dravidian family, especially Kannada and Tamil owe the deepest debt to the Jainācāryas for their excellent preservation and development and the richness of their literature through the centuries.
No study of any branch, any aspect or any wing of the Indian literary tradition can be complete without looking at the contribution