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(Third Section)
PRINCIPLES
OF
ECOLOGY
A close study of the world of life-plants and animals as presented in Jaina Biology reveals that there is a remarkable fitness of the organism for the place (thaṇa ) in which it lives, e. g. water for aquatic animals, land for terrestrial animals and air for aerial animals2 as indicated by their classifications and habitats. It is suggestive from this fact of fitness of organisms for the habitats in which they live that this fitness of their structure, of function, even of behaviour pattern, has arisen in course of evolution by natural selection3 as explained by modern Biology.
"The outcome of evolution is a population or organisms, a species, adapted to survive in certain type of environment."4
The species mentioned in the classifications5 of plants and animals in Jaina Biology show adaptations both in the physical environment and biotic environment which includes all the plants and animals in the same region,6 e. g. some plants and animals live on land in the same region, while some plants and animals live in the region of water as indicated in the sthanapada of the Pannavaṇā sūtra, regarding the habitats of plants upto those of five-sensed animals.
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Some of the fundamentals of ecology, the study of the interrelations between living things and their physical and biotic environment, etc. have been discussed in the first section "Biologic Interrelation" of the second chapter: "The World Of Life." Now the problems of 1. Pānṇavana Sutta 2, Thanapayaṁ, Sūtras 148-166, etc.
2. Uttaradhyayana Sutra 36.17.
3. Panṇavanä Sūtra 1. 61-91. Biology, p. 570.
4.
Biology, p. 570.
5. See Thaṇapayam of Pannavaṇā
Sutta, 160 162. "Vanassaikāyaṭhāṇāim", "Agadesu taḍāgesu nadisu dahasu vavisu pukkhariņisu dihiyasu gumjaliyāsu saresu...... divesu samuddesu savvesu ceva jalasaesu'.
See also "Veimdiyaṭhānaim", Pannavana Sutta 163-166. "Agaḍesu tatäesu nadisu ..... divesu samuddesu savvesu ceva jalasaesu ", etc.
6. See the second chapter: The World of Life, first section - Blologic Interrelationship, Ecosystem, Habitat and Ecologic Niche, Types of Interactions between species of Plants and Animals, etc.
7. Thanapayam, Pannavana Sutta 2.
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