Jainism and Democracy

Author(s): Indra Chandra Shastri
Publisher: I A S S Jain Conference New Delhi

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JAINISM AND DEMOCRACY
furiously on his back. We find such images also where one half is Hari i.e. Vishnu and the other half is Har
or Shiva. It is a combination of knowledge and wealth. . Later on with the development of mythology the above three ideals got a symbolic presentation in the forms of different deities. Knowledge was symbolised as Brahma, happiness as Shiva or Rudra. These attributes were indicated precisely by the consorts of the above deities. Brahma has Saraswati or the goddess of learning as his wife. Vishnu has Laxmi or the goddess of wealth and Shiva has Durga or Shakti, the goddess of power. Even the society came to be divided on the basis of these three persuits. The castes of Brahman, Kshatria and Vashyas worshipped Saraswati, Durga and Laxmi respectively. Later on the worship of Brahma disappeared and Shiva was split into two. He himself became the deity of knowledge and his consort Durga was recognised as the deity of Power.
Kalidasa, the representative poet of the Pauranic age combines all the three in his conceptions of Trimurti (Fanfá). He describes God dividing himself into three forms for accomplishing the three acts of creation, preservation and distruction. Here we can see that the mani-function of knowledge is creation, happiness is associated with preservation and power with destruction.
With the development of art, in the form of poetry, music, painting, sculpture etc. this symbolic expression got further development with its culmination with the development of Tantric practices in the 8th century and i afterwards.