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In fact, Indian culture is a culture of synthesis. We cannot understand and study it in separate compartments. Just as the functions of the body cannot be understood by dividing it into its various parts, likewise a piecemeal study of Indian culture will destroy its essential from. We can understand Indian culture in a holistic manner only if its different components such as Jaina, Buddhist, Hindu religion and philosophy are studied rightly and in their colligated form. Without this the knowledge of the components alone is incomplete. To understand the functions of an engine we are not only required to study just its parts or components but also how they function by being together or as collocation of parts. Therefore this fact should be borne in mind that a study of Indian culture would be incomplete without a proper study and research of other traditions and their mutual relationships.
Religion and culture do not grow or develop in a vacuum. They assume their status with the influences of the country, place, time and contemporary traditions. If we have to study and understand Jaina, Buddhist, Vedic or any other Indian cultural tradition, we have to study it in its various aspects, time, space and related perspective in an authentic and objective manner. Whether it is a study of Jainology or any other branch of Indology, we have to know other traditions as well and we must see how it is influenced by other contemporary traditions and how it has influenced others. Such interactive forces have to be taken into account without which no study is complete.
It is true that we find traces of Sramanic and Vedic cultures in the history of Indian culture right from the very beginning, but we should remember that in Indian culture both these streams are merged with each other and cannot be separated. The two streams
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Jainism and its History
