Jaina Religion Historical Journey of Evolution

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 40

30
Jaina Religion: Its Historical journey of evolution
every stream of Indian culture. Today when we are entangled in communalism attachments and mutual conflicts, a comparative study of these streams of our culture can give a new vision. If we study these steams of Indian cultural thought as separate identities, we would not be successful in understanding them fully and correctly. Just as in the study and understanding of Uttarādhyayana, Sūtrakrtānga, Rşibhāṣita, and Acāränga we need to study the Upanişadic literature, similarly we cannot study the Upanişadic literature and the Buddhist literature without studying the literature of Jaina tradition. The discovery of truth with objective and comparative approach by overcoming sectarian attachments is the only option today which can liberate man engulfed in sectarian conflicts, and can clearly underline the interrelatedness of Indian religions. The contribution of Jainism to Vedic religion
The main problem of the Upanişadic period and Mahāvīra's period was that many traditions prevalent in those times thought that their own one sided view was absolutely true and thus they stood in opposition with each other. There were four main categories of thinkers (i) Kriyāvādins (2) Akriyāvādins (3) Vinayavādins (4) Ajñānavādins. Mahāvīra was the first to attempt a synthesis of