Jaina Political Thought

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

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Jaina ideas about social and political origins as also the ideals of the ancient Cakravartins in their classical form.
Although it is increasingly believed that the historical and geographical portions of the Puranas have a certain basis in the tradition of empirical knowledge, it must be remembered that the theoretically the Puranas are quite differently conceived than history. In the first place the Puranas claim to stem from the supernatural wisdom of sages. The Jaina tradition holds that King Srenika wanted to be enlightened about the Puranas when Mahavira was still alive. Gautama Indra bhuti related the Puranas to him, which originally had been revealed by Rsabha to Bharata at the beginning of the epoch. Later the emperor Sagara had asked the same question of Ajitanatha. From Gautama the Puranic tradition passed on to sudharma and then to Jambhusvami. Through a long line of teachers this tradition started declining after 683 years had elapsed since the Nirvana of Mahavira. It is obvious, thus, that having survived over countless ages the tradition underwent a sudden sharp decline. By the time the present Puranas were written, the ancient tradition was faint indeedbecause these Puranas are plainly and largely literary compositions reflecting the social and cultural conditions of their own age and hardly any historian would be able to repose faith on the antiquity of the innumerable tales, incidents and names with which they are replete. The ancient material which these Puranas contain is relatively limited and uniform and this material has very interesting similarities and differences in relation to the Brahmanical tradition.
The Puranas, it would be clear, represented not a tradition of empirical history but a tradition of wisdom. They centered round the founder of the Jaina tradition who is remembered as the creator of the social order as also of the spiritual path of Retum. This central event of the promulgation of civilization as well as religion takes the place in the Jaina tradition of creation as in the Brahmanical tradition. The attributes of Brahma are, in fact, applied to the First Tirthankaras. He is called Svyambhu and Prajapati.
The most important idea of the Puranas, thus, is the ideal that social as well as spiritual wisdom was revealed by a man of superhuman attainments at the very time when history may be said to have begun. The basic norms of human life come from a perennial tradition of wisdom. They are not the tentative products of empirical history. The division of society into classes, the differentiation of economic professions, the institution authority -- all these were the contributions of Rsabha who also founded the arts and sciences. As ruler he founded civilization in its diverse aspects and as Tirthankara he revealed the path of salvation.
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