Jain Journal 2004 10

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

Page 22

DR.VP. JAIN: JAIN RELIGION AND SOCIETY
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of the Jains and Jainācāryas. They have immensely contributed to the origin and development of Indian Art and Architecture, Epigraphy, manuscript writing, preservation of manuscripts and libraries, music and painting, Indian system of education, building of exceptionally beautiful temples, caves, statues and images; works on grammar, linguistics, lexicography, poetics and prosody, all branches and varities of Indian literature, and the ancient Indian sciences of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, Botany, Zoology and Cosmology and the concepts of relative time and space, and energy, motion and matter.
Now come back to the pre-Mahāvīra age of ancient Indian Republics and come down to the enslavement of the country by the British, when Indian Princely States still had some de-jure and defacto authority over them.
Go back to the Nandas, Mauyas, Kharavela, other dynasties, the Guptas, Maukharies, Pratihārs and Chauhāns; Rajputs and other royal dynasties ruling over the North and West and Central states of India upto Marathwada; Ganga, Kadamba, Pallava, Chaulukya, Rashtrakuta, Chola, Ratta, Kalchuri and Hoysal dynasties, which were ruling the southern states, upto the period of the establishment of the Mughal-Sultanate in the country, you will find that many of the dynasties patronised Jainism. A number of kings and emperors were already Jains or they had adopted Jainism as their religion. They appointed many, in fact, numerous, Jains as their Ministers, Generals, Commanders, Treasurers, Revenue Officers, City-Merchant-Chiefs Bankers and in other important positions because of their heroism and bravery, absolute honesty, truthfulness and loyalty, intelligence and administrative and managerial skills; and never in the past 3 milleniums they were found wanting in human virtues upto sacrificing their life and property for the sake of the State, the king and the country; and never did they misuse the power and position for inflicting any injustice of any sort, on any of the other religious communities of the state or elsewhere; or terrorise them in anyway; because the Jain religion had ennobled and liberalized their total outlook on life and living. Proselytization or conversion of people of other faiths to Jainism was never, not once in the whole history, adopted as a policy.
The Jains as a community not only protected and preserved the environment, in every possible way, and everywhere, but have also