Jaina Biology

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 14

Introduction
discovered on the scientific basis. A method has been followed by the Jainas to see through a mass of biological data and they suggest a reson for their interrelations, as science advances only by scientific investigations : hypothesis, observation, revised hypothesis, further observation and so on. In the words of Einstein “ In the whole history of science from Greek philosophy to modern physics, there has been constant attempts to reduce the apparent complexity of natural phenomena to some simple, fundamental ideas and relations."15
Some of the practical uses of a knowledge of Jaina Biology will become apparent in the fields of medicine and public health, in agriculture and conservation, its basic importance to the social studies, and its contribution to the formulation of a philosophy of life, together with aesthetic values, as it is impossible to describe the forms of life without reference to their habitats, the places in which they live, in a given region, being closely interrelated with each other and with the environment in the closely interwoven tapestry of life.
2. Some Generalizations of Jaina Biological Science
The idea that living systems are distinguished from non-living ones by some mysterious vital force (paryāpti )16 has gained acceptance in Jaina Biology, while one of the basic tenets of modern Biology is that “the phenomena of life can be explained in terms of chemistry and physics."17 The idea that the living systems are not distinguished from non-living ones by some mysterious vital force has only recently gained ground in Biology, only 40 years ago, when the German embryologist, Hans Driesch, postulated the theory of the existence of transcendent regulative principles, entelechies, which control the pheaomena of life and development."18
There appear to be no exceptions to the generalization that all life comes only from living things. Like the experiments of Pasteur, Tyndal and others, 19 just century ago finally, the Jainācāryas, provided convincing proof that micro-organism, such as, nigodas. earth quadrates, etc., i. e. bacteria, are also incapable of originating from non-living material by spontaneous generation. It seems clear that nigodas require 15. Ibid, p. 4. 16. Paryapti (Vital force ), Navatattva prakaranam, V. 6, p. 12; .
Lokaprakāśā, Vinayavijayaji, Pt. I, 3rd Sarga, vv. 15 ff. 17. Biology, p. 9. 18. Biology, p 9. .19. Ibid.... .