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JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
JAINISM AS IT CAME TO BE The imperceptible way in which religions change in the course of centuries, especially when placed under conditions different from their original atmosphere, affords an interesting branch of investigation. Prof. Lüders alluded to this fact in the course of his valuable lectures on · Aryan Civilization in Central Asia ' delivered in 1928 under the auspices of the Bombay University. He pointed out, from the evidence inscribed on pieces of leather and wooden tablets found in China, how Buddhism in that country had been so transformed as to admit of Śramaņas who were married, owned slaves, and took part in commercial transactions, as well as believed in the expiation of sin by payment in money, forgetting the pure principles of the religion which they pretended to follow. Similarly, Smith has observed, that, “ While the original official Buddhism was a dry, highly moralised philosophy, much resembling in its practical operation the Stoic schools of Greece and Rome, the later emotional Buddhism approached closely to Christian doctrines in substance, although not in name. In other directions it became almost indistinguishable from Hinduism." 3 What happened to Jainism in Karnāțaka was not unlike this in many respects.
In the first place, with regard to its atheism. “Since the doctrine gave no other support,” says Bühler, “the religious feeling of the laity clung to the founder of it, Jina, and with him his mythical predecessors became gods. ... In many of their hymns in honour of Jina they appeal to him with as much fervour as the Brāhmaṇa to his gods; and there are often expressions in them, contrary to the original teaching, ascribing to Jina a creative power. Indeed, a Jaina description of the six principal systems goes so far as to number Jainism, as also Buddhism, among the theistic religions." 54 Epigraphic and
53 Smith, The Oxford History of India, p. 55. 51 The work referred to is Saddars'anasamuccaya, 45, 77-8; Bühler,
The Indian Sect of the Jainas, pp. 18-20, cf. Barth, Relegions of India, p. 146; Thomas, The Life of Buddha, p. 214.
