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JAINA BIBLIOGRAPHY
1377
NEHRU, Jawaharlal--The discovery of India, 2nd Edi. Calcutta, 1946.
P. 53. Arya Dharma includes all the faiths that originated in India; it was used by Jains also. Sanatana dharma, meaning the ancient religion, could be applied to any of the ancient faiths (including Buddhism aud Jainism), but the expression being monopolized by the Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were certainly not Hinduism or even the Vedic Dharma. Yet they arose in India and were integral parts of Indian life, culture and philosophy. A Jain in India is a hundred percent product of Indian thought and culture, yet it is not a Hindu
faith.
1287
P. 60. Buddhism and Jainism employed the abstention from life, and in certain periods Indian history there was a running away from life on a big scale.
P. 71. The ideology of the Upanishads did not permeate to marked extent to the masses and the intellectual separation between the creative minority and the majority became more marked. In course of time this led to new movements-a powerful wave of materialistic philosophy, agnosticism, atheism but of this again grew Buddhism and Jainism.
Pp. 92-94. Mahavira and Buddha: Caste-Both Jainism and Buddhism were break-aways from the Vedic religion and its offshoots, though in a they had grown out of it. They deny the authority of the Vedas and, most fundamental of all matters, they deny or say nothing about the existence of a first cause. Both lay emphasis on non-violence and build up organization of celibate monks and priests. There is certain realism and rationalism in their approach; One of the fundamental dectrines of Jainism is that truth is relative to our standpoints. It is a rigorous ethical and non-transcendental system laying a special emphasis on ascetic aspect of life and thought.
Mahavira, a Kshatriya (warrior class) was the founder of Jainism, a rebel against the parent religion and in many ways utterly different from it, was tolerant to caste and adopted itself to it; and so it survives and continues in India, almost as an offshoot of Hinduism.
Jain Education International
P. 122. There was an ascetic aspect of life in India, as there was later in Greece; that aspect was to grow more important under the influence of Jainism and Buddhism, but even so it did not change materially the background of life.
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