Jainism Some Essays

Author(s): A S Gopani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 49

4 Hindu Religion and Jaina Religion
It is not that easy to write about Hinduism and Jainism. The topmost question is why Jainism should be separated from Hinduism at all. There is no reason why it should be separated from Hinduism when the learned scholar like Anand Shankar Dhruva divides Hinduism into three classes, namely, Vaidic, Jaina and Buddha. Having accepted this division done by the late Dr. Dhruva, what I have to say is that the term Hinduism in and outside India, denotes that brand of Vedic religion, at least not Jainism and Buddhism at all which is specially current in the society at large. I have, therefore, in this article used the word “Hinduism" to stand for the Vedic religion which is at present followed in particular by the society as a whole. In this context it is not necessary to state that Jainism is decidedly different from it. There is unanimity amongst scholars regarding the fact that Jainism is not an offshoot of the Vedic religion, but an independent one. It is more probable that Jainism resembles more with that religious stream which flowet in India before the Aryans came, meaning thereby that before the Vedic religion was imported in India.
Hinduisma comprehensive term
Thus, keeping aside what happened in the earliest times, there is much to be found that lays Jainism under debt during the whole later period marked with the mutual exchange between the Vedic religion on one hand and Jninism and Buddhism on the other. Also, there are many things for which the Vedic religion is indebted to Jainism. There is a transforination brought about in the Vedic religion as it is today from what it was in the Vedic times, and it is in no small measure due to Jainism and Buddhism. Talks of spiritual sacrifices have today started taking place substituting sacrifices of the Vedic times involving injury to living beings and this is clearly due to the impact of Mahavira and Buddha. A pariah can become a saint and deserve respect today according to the theory that religion is his who ovserves it--the theory that has replaced-the Vedic one which laid down that of all the four castes that of the Brāhmin was superior and that the Brāhmin was the teacher of all. Here also the stamp of Jainism and Buddhism is detacted. While, on the contrary, in the society following Jainism the classification of the high and the low is made after the manner of the caste distinctions enjoined by the Vaidikas. A technique of pompous worship adopted in the Jaina temples is borrowed from the Vaisnava religion. This is how the cultura give and take in a