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Dr. Sagarmal Jain: Need of the Day-Comparative Study of Indic-Religions
religion. It incorporated in itself various sramanic tenets which gave a new dimansion to vedic religion. Thus, we can say that our present Hinduism is an intermingling of Vedic and sramanic traditions. The vioce raised by our ancient Upanișadic Ķsis, Munis and Šramanas against the ritualistic and worldly outlook of caste-ridden Brahminism, became more strong in the form of Jainism and Buddhism along with other minor Šramanic sects. Infact the Upanișadic trend as well as Jainism and Buddhism provided refuge to those, who fed up with vedic ritulism and the worldly outlook. Not only Jainism and Buddhism but some other sects and schools of Indian thought such as Ajīvikas and Samkhyas also adopted more or less the same course towards Vadic ritualism. However, Jainism and Buddhism were more candid and vehement in their opposition towards Vedic ritualism. They out rightly rejected animal sacrifices in yajnas, the birth-based castesystem and the infallibility to the vedic verses. In Mahāvīra and Buddha, the most prominent preachers (exponents), we find the real crusaders: whose tirade, against caste-ridden and ritualistic Brahminism, touching a low water-mark and crumbling under its inner inadequacies, they gave a severe jolt to it. Jainism and Buddhism came forward to sweep away the long accumulated excrescence, grown on Indian culture in the form of rituals, casteism, and superstitions..
But we shall be mistaken if we presume that in their attempt to clear away the dirt of Vedic ritualism, Jainism and Buddhism remained untouched from it. They were also considerably influenced by Vedic rituals. Ritualism in the new form of Tântric practices crept into Jainism and Buddhism and these practices became part and parcel of their religious practices and mode of worship. With the impact of Hindu Tantricism, Jainas adopted various Hindu deities and their mode of worship with some changes, which ware suited to their religious temperament, but these deities were alien to Jainism in its original form. The Jaina concept of Sāsana Devatā or Yakşa-Yaksis is nothing but a Jaina version of Hindu deities. As I have pointed out earlier, the influence has been reciprocal. This can be demonstrated by the fact that
