Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 81

60 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline the Angas and the Kāśis, while his son and successor Ajātaśatru launched a vigorous invasion against the Vajjian confederacy. The tremendous bloodshed and massacre caused by this invasion did not escape the notice of the Buddha and Mahāvīra. The Sākya tribe, to which the Buddha himself belonged, was annihilated by the Kosalan prince Vidudabha, and this happened before the very eyes of the Buddha.
This rise of class society and state power in eastern India in the sixth century BC through immense bloodshed and wholesale massacre was undoubtedly the culmination of a historical process. The cause of this rise should be attributed to the production of immense social surplus and its accumulation in the hands of a few. From the Upanişadic legends we come to know of the fact that kings like Janaka were able to spend many thousands, of cows for getting assurance of immortality from renowned teachers like Yājñavalkya and others. This shows the fantastic extent of social wealth that was accumulated in the hands of a few. This accumulation of surplus could be caused only in two ways, either by forcible exploitation of labour or by a revolutionary change in the mode of production. Prof. R.S. Sharma believes that this change was due to the introduction of iron implements in the field of production. So long as the mode of production cannot yield surplus, the integration of tribal society remains intact, but when a revolutionary change in that mode takes place, it also changes the existing social values and relations, giving rise to the growth of a non-productive privileged class. In order to look after the interest of this privileged class, laws are enacted, police and military systems are introduced-in other words, the conception of state becomes materialised. This did not escape the notice of the Buddha as is proved by his discourse on the origin of the state.2
The contemporaries of the Buddha and Mahāvīra were overwhelmed by the stupendous social transformation of the age, the collapse of the tribal institutions, the rise of new values ushered in by the state-power and the new forces of injustice and untruth-and they tried to understand the problems in their own way. Overwhelmed by bloodshed and massacre, Pūraña and Pakudha thought that there was no difference between merit and demerit, between violence and nonviolence. Ajita could not distinguish between the fool and the wise, for both were doomed to death, and Sañjaya preferred to keep him
1DKCV, pp. 63ff. · Digha, III, 27.