Jaina Literature in Tamil

Author(s): A Chakravarti, K V Ramesh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 32

JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
King Janaka represents such a spirit of compromise and Yājñavalkya, an eastern Āryan scholar,1 probably represents the force that effected the compromise and adjustment. The old sacrificial ritualism, instead of being discarded altogether, is retained as an inferior culture side by side with the new wisdom of ātmavidya which is recognised as distinctly higher. Such a compromise, no doubt, was a victory to the orthodox section of the Āryans. But such a compromise must have been unacceptable to the members of the liberal school who must have stood aloof; that such was the fact is evidenced by a small instance mentioned in the Jaina Rāmāyaṇa. When there was a talk of Rāma's marriage mooted in Dasaratha's court one of the ministers suggested that Janaka's daughter Sitā would be the proper bride. But it was seriously objected to by many ministers who pointed out that Janaka was no more the follower of the doctrine of ahimsa in as much as he went back to the opposite camp. But it was finally decided that, from the political and military point of view, the alliance would be desirable in spite of this religious difference. This fact clearly suggests that Janaka was considered
7
1 The authors of the Vedic Index (Vol. II, p. 190) hold that the suggestion that Yajnavalkya was an eastern Aryan is not wholly acceptable. However, Macdonell, one of the authors of the Vedic Index, says in his History of Sanskrit Literature (1925) that certain passages of the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa 'render it highly probable that Yajnavalkya was a native of Vidēha', which is an eastern country.