Jainism Some Essays

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

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Jainism
item, namely, the sacrifice, prevailed. This form of the Hindu religion that existed three thousands years before is today's Brähmana religion.
3. Transitional period. The period that followed this was the period of transition marked by another form of Hindu religion which received the appelation of upanişadic or Vedāntik. As the Āryas advanced further and further from north to the east, their contact with the people of India deepened and as a result of this the Vedic religion was flooded with new thoughts. People revolted against the elaborate ceremonialism and the supremacy of the Brāhmaṇas. The thinkers who took an extreme stand that the sacrifice was a leaky boat, appeared on the field. An attitude, in which it was accepted that traditionalism should be replaced by progressive thinking, crystalized. Thus, we see that an attention was focussed more on Brahma than on sacrifice in the Upanişads. The interest in ceremonialism relating to sacrifice decreased and that in the thoughts about soul increased. A number of Doubts and queries began to be entertained freely regarding the origin and growth of this universe. In this period, the fact that the Kşatriyās, not the Brāhmins, led the thinking world shows that the Ksatriyās had started dominating the religious world also, reducing the impact of the Brāhmins on it. This was natural because the decrease of the effect of ceremonialism and ritualism must result in that of the same of the Brāhmins. In these times, on one hand, there were Brāhmins who were the supporters of ritualism while on the other, there were Ksatriyas who espoused the cause of spiritual thinking-when these two-the advocates and antagonists of the ritualism and spiritualism-had gone to the last limit in pushing forward their views, there was a class which preferred the golden mean as it believed honestly that there was mush in both of them that was fit to be adopted and therefore it should not oppose them tooth and nail. If the complexities are removed from the sacrifice as also injury to living beings, the spiritualists had no reason to go against it because there was nothing wrong they thought, in removing the emphasis on excessive ceremonialism and ritualism from the code of conduct and in laying a greater stress instead on spiritualism. But this middle-roaders had not still established their hold on the society. A tug-of-war consisting of a ferment between thought and action characterized this Upaniş adic age. Though the heat had not still generated the necessary and the expected alchemic product, it had succeeded in opening up, at least, a new direction. Therefore, it is not at all wrong if this period is described as the transitional period of the Hindu religion. That was the situation that prevailed, two thousand and a half years before.