Jaina Political Thought

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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expressed.5 They also distinguish between pertect spiritual knowledgeand the knowledge which may be acquired from words 16. Finally, they disting. uish between the knowledge which different persons may gather from the same set of words on account of a difference in their attitudes and approaches. In the Vedic tradition true transcendental knowledge of moral and spiritual truths is aquired by hearing the Vedic words from an appropriate Brahmanical teacher. Four stages would seem to be involved in this process the original expression of ideas into words, the preservation and communication of the words and their meaning from generation to generation, learning the verbal communication. understanding its meaning. In the Vedic tradition, however, the first of these is not admitted because the Vedic word is impersonal and the original source of transcendental meanings. This is not admissible on Jaina view where words must be some person's words from the start. Beyond this, however, the problem of exact communication and accurate understanding is common to the Vedic as well as the Jaina tradition. The Brahmans, however, claim a greater degree of preservation for their tradition, which may be admitted as a fact. The Jainas have shown at great length that the Mimamsaka arguments for the uncreated and impersonal character of the Veda cannot be rationally accepted. 17 They have questioned the linguistic, semantic and epistemic theories advanced by the Mimamsakas in this connection. This philosophicalcontroversy, however, belonged to an age later than that of the Agamas.
In the age of the Agamas the Jainas rejected the authority of the Vedas and their priestly exponents because they contradicted the tradition of their faith in point of doctrine as well as conduct. Authority belongs to pure spiritual knowledge which cannot be obtained without renouncing worldliness and violence. Since the Brahmanas followed a tradition which apparently endorsed both worldliness and violence, they could not be regarded as the custodians of wisdom of deserving of ethical esteem.
The authority of the Brahmanas was particularly tied up with the performance of ritual. As a matter of fact, this authority continued in practice as far as the ritual attending the course of individual life was concerned but it gradually lost its moral force and tended to became a matter of convention, ritual itself becoming overlaid by customs of a popular origin. At the public level, especially the level of the state, the continuance of the ancient ritual tradition as a solemn and necessary element tended to be interrupted early in the postVedic age. While the hypothesis of a significant and general conflict between the Ksattriyas and the Brahmanas in the later Vedic age may be said to be unproved, there is no doubt that a ruling
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