Book Title: Jainism And Its History
Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology

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Page 114
________________ stay only if the authority of Islam was established. Thus, for spreading Islam in this country, Muslim rulers gave sufficient amount of comforts to the people. Along with its establishment Islam came in contact with other Indian faith. Indian thinkers started paying attention to the cultural and religious aspects of Islam. As a consequence, Indian masses found Islam as a simple way of devotion, free from rituals. Due to this mutual contact a new class of saints appeared in this country, which liberated Hindu religion from rituals and gave it a natural and simple style of worship. We see, that in 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, not only did Nirguna form of worship evolve but became a prominent form of devotion or worship. In that period not only were India masses seized with casteism and classism, but in the field of religion also there was so much influence of rituals that the spiritual element became subordinate and rituals became predominant. Having established their political authority the Muslim rulers blinded by fanaticism began to ruthlessly destroy temples and idols and to build mosques with the material of the broken temples. The masses, seeing their temples and idols being reduced to rubble and the great stories woven around them evaporate into thin air, were disillusioned. The result was a loss of faith in their own religious practices and an attraction for a simpler mode of worship like that of the Muslim religion. As a consequence, there arose a feeling of revolt against idol-worship and rituals in Indian religions. Many saints such as Kabir, Dadu, Nanak, Raidas etc. were blowing their bugle of revolution in Hindu religion. The support of rituals in the name of the religion started diminishing in the hearts of the people. This is the reason that many great men were born in Indian soil that liberated religion from rituals Jainism and its History | 112

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