Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

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

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64 Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
forces of nature under their control by collective rituals and other performance. In class society this belief was shattered to pieces; the gods represented the ruling class, to be pleased only by propitiation and devotion; and monotheism was the logical consequence of this process. Side by side, the king was conceived as the human prototype of the Supreme Being of monotheism. This is frankly stated in the Gītā.
The impact of all these evidently fell on the doctrines of Buddhism and Jainism. We have said that at a critical stage of Indian history, when the free tribes were being ruthlessly exterminated by the expanding state powers the Buddha and Mahāvīra modelled their Samghas on the basic principles of tribal society in order to provide the peoples of their times with the illusion of a lost reality, of the dying tribal collective. But at the same time both of these great teachers had to face the dual requirements of their age, and this alone explains way a considerable number of the contemporary aristocrats and princes formed their front rank associates. That is why Buddhism and Jainism had given moral support to the interests of the trading class and accepted the new social requirements in which debtors and slaves could not run away from their obligations, animals could no longer be killed indiscriminately and private property could not be appropriated. In early Buddhism and Jainism, it should be remembered, celebacy is stressed. The prohibitions on sexual relations outside of marriage were due to the overwhelming demand of private property, to make sure of the ancestry of the child. In Brāhmaṇical religion the trading class was assigned the third place in society, but the Buddha's and Mahāvīra's attitude towards caste system raised their social status. Likewise their emphasis on the barrenness of the sacrificial religion saved the new economic classes from unnecessary expenditure.
Contemporary Philosophical Schools
The aforesaid material conditions undoubtedly gave birth to a large mass of 'heretic' or 'heterodox' philosophy outside the pale of Brahmanism in the days of the Buddha and Mahāvira. Besides the Buddhist and Jain sources, we have to mention the Upanişads! themselves and also the later Mandukya-Kārikās2 and the Pāñcarātra texts
1 Svetāśvatara, I. 2; VI, Iff.; Maitrāyaṇī, VI, 14ff,; VI, 20; VII, pp. 8ff. 'I, 7-9; II, 30-28.