Jainism and Dr Gours Hindu Code

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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evidence of a stage less cultured, more animistic, that is to say earlier." I have shown in the Appendix to my Practical Path which covers 58 pages the true relationship between Jainism and Hinduism, and have further elucidated the subject in my Key of Knowledge (see pages 1068 to 1080 of the 2nd edition) and in my Confluence of Opposites (see especially the last lecture). It is made clear in these works that Jainism is the oldest religion of all and that its principles constitute the foundation of the different systems and schools of thought. Any one who will dispassionately and without prejudice go through my Confluence of Opposites and will then read the other references will, I feel sure, not find it in his heart to differ from me on this point. The arguments advanced by those who regard the Jainas as Hindu dissenters may be summed up under the following heads :
(1) That their doctrines resemble those of the Brahmagas in their character of quietism, tenderness for animal life, transmigration, hells and heavens, attainment of salvation and the means for the same.
(2) That the caste system is common to both,
(3) That the Jainas "admit the Hindu gods and worship them though they consider them as entirely subordinate to their own saints."
(4) That the Jainas have added to the absurdities of the (Hindus) system," thus they have sixty four Indras and twenty two Devis.
These are the grounds of opinion of Elphinstone which Dr. Gour quotes on pages 180-181 of the Hindu Code. But surely they cut both ways, for when certain features are found in common between two systems A and B it cannot be said with certainty that A is necessarily the borrower and not B. It may be that the Jainas borrowed these things from the Hindus but it is equally possible that the Hindus borrowed the basis of their creed from the Jainas. Mere resemblance obviously does not suffice to determine the point. And so far as the most important of these resemblances, i.e. tenderness for animal life is concerned, I think ahimsa can never be said to have been a mark of Hind as it is of Jainism whose very motto has all along been ahimsa parmo dharma (non-injuring is the highest religion). The third point that the Jainas admit Hindu gods and worship them is