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JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XLII, NO.3 JANUARY. 2008
interwoven in Indian thoughts and ideas. It is not easy to point out the basic contribution of the Jains for making India as an abode of morality.
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It is to be remembered at the very initial stage that the Jain religion is very old. The first Tīrthankara Ṛṣabhadeva or Adinātha belonged to the pre-historic era and so also the other twentyone Tīrthankaras. But the last three Tīrthankaras - Ariṣṭanemi, Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra belonged to the historic times and we could, to some extent, place them to the historic period. As Ariṣṭanemi is related to Kṛṣṇa, his date is assigned to 1000 B.C., and Pārśvanātha, according to the Cambridge History of India, belongs to 817 B.C., and the date of Mahāvīra is assigned to 599 B.C. and his nirvāņa to 527 B.C. Historically, these dates are, more or less, accepted and we talk about Jainism on the basis of these dates.
Though Jain literature was codified in the 5th cent. A.D. (approximately 454 or 463 A.D.) by Devardhigani Kṣamāśramaņa at Valabhi in Gujarat, its contents were very old, as old as Mahāvīra. Here I shall confine myself with the contribution of the Jains to the question of ethics in Indian life.
II Approach to the subject:
It is more or less established by the Jain thinkers that all living beings residing in heavens and hells suffer quite a lot in their existence. To get rid of this suffering the first step to avert this suffering is to acquire the knowledge of the causes of this suffering by eliminating ignorance one after another. The Jains in this respect have prescribed certain aspects of knowledge in different walks of life which have a pan-Indian effect to the people. Before acquiring knowledge the Jains say that men in a society must receive certain ethical or moral qualities in order to build up his character which is one of the most fundamental bases of men. These basic moral qualities are interspersed with different aspects of Jainism.
As all the doctrines and moral values of Jainism are leading to the path of Salvation (mokşa-marga), the Jains believe that for the realization of nirvāṇa, certain rules of conduct must be observed.
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