Jainism And Its History

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Research Foundation for Jainology

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Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro and the ancient and oldest lilerary document, the Rgveda. On the one hand, we find a number of seals of the yogis in meditative postures excavated from Mohen-jo-daro and Harappa, and on the other there are clear references to Ārhats, Vrātyas, Vātarasanā recluses or Munis in Rgveda. All these are evidences of the existence of Śramana or Arhat tradition in the ancient times.
Today's current term “Jaina dharma’ is not very old. It has been in currency only since the 6th or the 7th century ADearlier, the term used for Jaina-dharma was Nirgrantha-dharma or Ārhatdharma. Even in these two, the term Nirgrantha is mainly used to denote the traditions of 23rd and 24thTīrthankaras Pārśva and Mahāvīra. But as far as the term “Ārhat’ is concerned, it is essentially used in a broader sense. It is used to denote the follower or devotee of Arhat or Arhanta. And all the Sramanic traditions as the Jaina, the Buddhist or the Ājivakas have been followers of Arhanta.
Thus, all these traditions were included in Ārhat category. In the Rgvedic era both Ārhat and Bārhat (i.e. Śramana and Vedic) were in the existence. And Arhat or ‘Vrātya' was denotative of Sramana stream. But with the passage of time, some of the sub-classes of Śramaņa tradition got absorbed in the broader Hindu religion and streams like the Ājivaka and others got lost while the Buddhist tradition remained only in name in India, in spite of having a significant identity in many foreign lands. The denotation of the term Arhat thus got restricted to Jaina tradition. Thus terms like 'Ārhat’, ‘Vrātya' and 'Sramaņa’ have denoted Jaina dharma from very early times. And for this reason Jaina dharma is called Ārhat or Arhat dharma, Śramana dharma, or Nivrtti-marga dharma. But we should keep in mind that terms
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Jainism and its History