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HISTORY
WISE WRITERS AND ADVISERS
Vilas Sangave recites the significant Jain literary contribution to Indian heritage
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JAIN ART FROM INDIA
A Jain monk receiving a prince, Rajasthan, circa 1640, from
*The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India' IT IS EVIDENT THAT JAINISM IS AN ANCIENT
religion of India and that right from antiquity to present day Lit has continued to flourish in different parts of India along with other religions. Jains, the followers of Jainism, are therefore found all over India from ancient times and are also known everywhere for their strict observance of their religious practices in their daily lives. That is why Jainism could survive in India for so many centuries. Jains, in this way, succeeded in continuing to exist as devout followers of a distinct religion in India. This, however, is not the only distinguishing feature of Jains in India. In fact their most outstanding characteristics is the very impressive record of contributions to Indian culture. In spite of the limited and small population of Jains, their achievements in enriching the various aspects of Indian culture are very significant.
Perhaps the most creditable contribution is in the field of languages and literature. It is quite evident that right from the Vedic period two different currents of thoughts and ways of life were prevalent in India, known as Brahmana and Sramana. The Sramana culture is mainly represented by the Jains and the Buddhists, and among these two the Jains were the first to propagate that culture. That is why from ancient times we have the Sramana literature besides the Brahmanic literature. The characteristic features of the Sramana literature are as follows:
it disregards the system of castes and asramas; its heroes are, as a rule, not Gods and Rsis but kings or merchants or even Sudras. The subjects of poetry taken up by it are not Brahmanic myths and legends, but popular tales, fairy stories, fables and parables. It likes to insist on the misery and sufferings of samsara and it teaches the morality of compassion and ahimsa, quite distinct from the ethics of Brahmanism with its ideals of the great sacrifices and generous support of the priests, and of the strict adherence to the caste system.
The authors of the Sramana literature have contributed enormously to the religious, ethical, poetical and scientific literature of ancient India. A close examination of the vast
religious literature of the Jains has been made by M. Winternitz in his History of Indian Literature. In this masterly survey of ancient Indian literature, M. Winternitz has asserted that the Jains were foremost in composing various kinds of narrative literature like puranas, charitras, kathas, prabandhas, etc. Besides a very extensive body of poetical narratives, the non-canonical literature of the Jains consists of an immense number of commentaries and independent works on dogma, ethics and monastic discipline. They also composed legends of saints and works of ecclesiastical history. Being fond of story-telling, the Jains were good story-tellers themselves, and have preserved for us numerous Indian tales that otherwise would have been lost. Kavyas and mahakavyas of renowned merit have been composed by Jain poets. Lyrical and didactic poetry are also well represented in their literature.
Apart from these, invaluable contributions have been made by the Jains to the Indian scientific and technical literature on various subjects like logic, philosophy, poetics, grammar, lexicography, astronomy, astrology, geography, mathematics and medicine. Special attention has been paid to the politics (arthasatra) which is considered to be a 'worldly science par excellence. Thus there is hardly any branch of science that has not been ably treated by the Jains.
Jain literature is also very important from the point of
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Jain Spirit . December 2002 - February 2003
in Education International 2010/03
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