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Glory of Jainism
Of all Indological studies, Jainism has been particularly unfortunate in that the little that is done for it stands in vivid contrast with the vast undone.
We shall not attempt to relate here, neither shall we venture to sketch in outline, the mighty developments of the dogmas, the institutions and the doctrines of this great religion. Ours will be an attempt to follow the fortunes of a people, stout and sturdy, great and glorious, both in making a history for themselves and for their religion, and to estimate, in however tentative and fragmentary a fashion, the intrinsic worth of their contribution, particularly to the rich and fruitful cultural stream of India.
"The history of ancient India," says a modern historian, "is a history of thirty centuries of human culture and progress. It divides itself into several distinct periods, each of which, for a length of several centuries, will compare with the entire history of many a great people." In these "thirty centuries of human culture and progress", the Jaina contribution is a solid synthesis of manysided developments in art, architecture, religion, morals and sciences; but the most important achievement of the Jaina thought is its ideal of Ahimsanon-violence-towards which, as the Jainas believe, the present world is slowly, though imperceptibly, moving. It was regarded as the goal of all the highest practical and theoretical activities, and it indicated the point of unity amidst all the diversities which the complex growth had inhabited by different peoples produced.
It is really difficult, nay, impossible to fix a particular date for the origin of Jainism. To the Jainas, Jainism has been
1. Dutt, Ancient India. p. 1.
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Shri Chimanlal J. Shah, M.A. revealed again and again in every one of the endless succeeding periods of the world by innumerable Tirthankaras. Of the present age the first Tirthankara was Rsbha and the last two were Pārsva and Mahāvīra. Nevertheless, modern research has brought us at least to that stage, wherein we can boldly proclaim all these worn-out theories about Jainism being a latter off-shoot of Buddhism or Brahmanism as gross ignorance or, to repeat, as erroneous misstatements. On the other hand, we have progressed a step further, and it would be considered a historical fallacy to say that Jainism originated with Mahāvīra. This is because it is now a recognised fact that Parśva, the twenty-third Tirthankara of the Jainas, is a historical person, and Mahāvīra like any other Jaina enjoyed no better position than of a reformer in a galaxy of the Tirthankaras of the Jainas.
Coming to the reformed Jaina Church of Mahavira or Jainism as such, it spread slowly among the poor and the lowly, for it was then a strong protest against caste privileges. It was a religion of equality of man. Mahavira's righteous soul rebelled against the uprighteous distinction between man and man, and his benevolent heart hankered after a means to help the humble, the oppressed and the lowly. The Brāhmaṇa and Sudra, the high and the low, were the same in his eyes. All could equally effect their salvation by a holy life, and he invited all persons to embrace his catholic religion of love. It spread slowly as Christianity spread in Europe in the early days-until Śrenika, Künika, Chandragupta, Samprati, Kharavela, and others embraced Jainism during the first few glorious centuries of Hindu rule in India.
If by atheism we understand the
