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JAINA BIOLOGY (1)
- J. C. Sikdar 1. Jaina Biology and the Scientific Method Biology is the science of living substance (Jivadravya)' which is different from non-living substance (ajivadravya)? It is a very old science of living substances for solving the fascinationg riddle of life. The survival of early men required a knowledge of such basic facts as which plants and which animals could be safely taken as food and medicine. In the Jaina Agamic literature the word 'Jivatthikāya'is used to refer to any living substance, plant or animal, from nigoda" (micro-organism) up to the pañcendriya manusya' (five-sensed human beings), just as the word 'organism's in modern age is used to denote any living thing, plant or animal, from amoeba to man.
The study of Biology began with the Jainas on the basis of the doctrine of animism? and ahimsa (non-violence) in the hoary past, besides the requirement of food to sustain life with a sense of spiritual value of life of all beings. They kept in view the concepts of living substance as contained in the Vedic and post-Vedic literature, describing the external and intemal parts of plants and animals with their nomenclature, classifications, etc.
Biology as an organized science can be said to have begun with the Greeks" in the West on the basis of the knowledge of such basic facts as which plants and which animals were useful as food and medicine. “They and the Romans described the many kinds of plants and animals known at the time."}?
Galen (131-200 A.D)," the first experimental physiologist, made experiments to study the functions of nerves and blood vessels. Biology expanded and underwent alteration greately
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