Jainism And Its History

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

Page 21

Nevertheless, our culture, being a composite one, watertight compartmentalization between its different shades is not at all feasible. We cannot fully understand Indian culture without understanding these two of its different constituents, Sramanic and Vedic, developed later on in the form of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. So one thing must be clear in our mind, that studies and researches in the field of any one of these three religions cannot be successfully undertaken in isolation from the other two, as Jainism, Buddhism or Hinduism are so inter mingled and mutually influenced that, to have a proper understanding of one, an understanding of other two is essential. No doubt these different trends are distinguishable but, at the same time, we must be aware of the fact that they are not separable. Though, on the basis of some peculiarities in theory and practice, we can distinguish them, yet it is very difficult to make a complete separation, because none of these trends remained uninfluenced by the others.
The earlier Sramanic trend and its later shades such as Jainism and Buddhism had influenced the Vedic tradition, which later on developed in the form of Hinduism. The concepts of tapas or austerity, asceticism, liberation, meditation, equanimity and nonviolence, which were earlier absent in the Vedas, came into existence in Hinduism through Sramanic influence. The Upanisadas and the Gita evolved some new spiritualistic definitions of Vedic rituals. Both are the representatives of the dialogue which had taken place between Sramanic and Vedic traditions. The Aupanisadika trend of Hinduism is not a pure form of Vedic religion. It incorporated in itself the various tenets and gave a new dimension to Vedic religion. Thus we can say that Hinduism is an intermingled state of Vedic and Sramaņas traditions. The voice which was raised by our ancient Aupan sadika Ķsiand Munis as well
19 Jainism and its History