Jain Journal 2008 01 No 03

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

Page 31

SatyaRanjanBanerjee:Contributionofthe Jainsin Developing MoralFibresoftheIndians
135
In social and cultural life there is very little difference between a Jaina and a Hindu. In outward life-style nv distinction is visible between the two. No Hindus ever hesitate to go to a Jain Temple and vice-versa. There is hardly any Jains who have not visited any Hindu temples. Even in the Durgā-Pūjā festival, many Jains take part in it forgetting that it is a Hindu deity. Similarty, in the Paresa-nātha procession held in the Kārttika-pūrnimā day, particularly in Calcutta, thousands of Hindus flock together to witness the procession. Sometimes in the mid-fifties of the 20th century, I myself was in the procession and the Jains did not hesitate to allow me to be in the procession.
George Bühler has pointed out that “the precepts of Jainism on the conduct of life agree in many respects with those of the Hindu Dharmaśāstra (Glasenapp, p. 494). Bühler further says, "The Jains have directly borrowed a great number of rules from the Brahminic law-books. The occupations forbidden to Jain laymen are almost totally those, which the Brahmanic law forbids to a Brāhmaṇa, when necessity compels him to live like a Vaisya, and further reminds us of parallel passages from Manu's Law-books and other works in Jainawritings" (ibid, p. 494).
I have mentioned earlier the influence of ahiṁsā on the Mahābhārata. I now say that there is an apparent influence of Jaina ahiṁsā on Vaişnavism. The Vaisnavas advocate vegetarianism and opposition of sacrifices. “Jina is considered, says Glasenapp, "as an Avatāra of Vişnnu. It is taught in the Padma-Tantra I. 1.44 ff. that Vişņu as Rşabha proclaimed the Ārhataśāstra. Rşabha is called an incarnation of Vişnu in Bhāgavata purāņa V. 3 ff. and XI. 2. as also in other holy works of Vişnuism." (Glasenapp, ibid, p. 494).
In South Kannada, Madhvācārya's ( 1192-1278A.D.) philosophical systems of Vaişņavas, there is a clear traces of Jaina influence. As Madhva lived in South Kannada, where Jainism was a ruling religion for centuries, the influence of Jainism could be really understood
In South India Saivite-systems were greatly influenced by Jainism. G.U. Pope (The Tiruvāsagama, Oxford, 1900, p. 86) thinks that “the doctrine of Saiva-Siddhānta of the three fetters (Pāsa) or