Jaina Literature in Tamil

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

Page 60

JAINA LITERATURE IN TAMIL
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demand for meat. The butcher's interest is merely to make money and hence he adopts a particular trade determined by the principle of 'supply and demand.' Therefore the responsibility of killing animals for food is mainly on your head and not upon the butcher's. When there is such an open condemnation of animal sacrifice sanctioned by Vedic ritualism and the Buddhistic practice of eating meat by a convenient interpretation of the ahiņsā doctrine, it is clear by a process of elimination that the only religion that conforms to the principles enunciated in the book is the religion of ahimsā as upheld by the Jainas. It is maintained by a well-known Tamil scholar living, that the work is a faithful translation of the Dharma-śāstra by Bodhāyana. Though very many Sanskrit words are found in this work and though from among the traditional doctrines some are also treated therein, still it would not be accurate to maintain that it is merely an echo of what appeared in the Sanskrit literature because many of these doctrines are re-interpreted and re-emphasised in the light of the ahimsa doctrine. It is enough to mention only two points. This Bödhāyana-Dharmasästra, since it is based upon the traditional varņāsrama, keeps to the traditional four castes and their duties. According to this conception of dharma, cultivation of the land is left to the last class of sūdras and would certainly be infra dig for the upper classes to have any
1. Cl. eg. Baudhayana-Dharma-sūtra (Kashi Sanskrit Series, No. 104, Benaras, 1934), Ist praśna, 16th khanda, 1st sütra : 'Catvärö varṇä brahmaņa-kşatriya-vių-südrāḥ'.