Jainism

Author(s): N R Guseva
Publisher: Sindu Publications P L

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JAINISM
centrated manner. Many an Aryan tribe settled here, making up a big ethnic mass, in which uniform type of material culture was cultivated and uniform spiritual culture was unfolding itself. The local pre-Aryan environment exerted its influence on one or the other aspect, but the settlement of Aryans in these regions for a long time, their numerical strength and the mutual territorial proximity of their tribes contributed to their success in transforming not only the types of their caste-class relations but also their normal laws, traditional holy legends and hymns, method of worship, in such measure as the local peoples in their neighbourhood had to accept this from their hands, as from the hands of a ruler and a conqueror and had to construct on this foundation their own social and spiritual life.
The result of the developing caste-class relations and the division into the caste of priests-Brahmins was the formation of caste-structure and further with this, elevation by the Brahmins of prohibitions and limitations to the level of religious dogmas. This divided the people into castes and prohibited transfer from the lower castes into the higher. Hence Brahmanism, invariably attended by caste structure and by the demand of assigning high position to Brahmins in the society and showing them limitless respect, started spreading in the whole of India.
This religion reflected the process of the development of castes and, more important, of the warriors and rulers—rajas. unfolded themselves in the ancient Indian monarchies. In ‘Mahabharat' one comes across description everywhere, showing how highly Brahmins were treated in monarchic states.
Brahmin became the professional and the sole votary of the cult, spiritual leader and mentor of members of all other castes and, more important, of the warriors and rulers—rajas. Such a position began to take shape already in early-state formations, where only the monarchic manner of governance was just proceeding.
The spiritual domination of the Kshatri, the patriarch of the family-kin groups in the past and the independent position of the Kshatriya-warrior in military-democratic republics later on, was replaced by their dependence on Brahmins, not only in the religious-cultural matters but also in the affairs