Jainism in Ealy Medieval Karnataka

Author(s): Ram Bhushan Prasad Singh
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 41

CHAPTER III IDOL WORSHIP AND TANTRISM In the earliest phase of their history the Jainas and the Buddhists launched a systematic campaign against the cult of ritual and sacrifice as destructive of all morals, and laid great stress on the purification of soul for the attainment of nirvana or salvation. They denied the authority of god over human actions. Unlike the Hindus, they did not accept god as the crcator and destroyer of the universe. Contrary to the popular view, they held that every soul possesses the virtues of parantalma or god and attains this status as soon as it frees itself from the worldly bondage. .
Naturally the early Jainas did not practise image worship, which finds no place in the Jaina canonical literature. The carly Digambara texts from Karnataka do not furnish authentic information on this point, and the description of their milagunas and altaragunas mcant for lay worshippers do not refer to image worship. But idol worship first appeared in the early centuries of the Christian cia, and claborate rules were developed for performing the different rituals of Jaina worship during early medieval times.
Samantabhadra, who belongs to the early century of the Christian era, was probably the first to lay down worship as thc rcligious duty of a layman. He included it among the śiksäuratas or educative vows and gave it a place of some importance in his rules for Jaina householders. From his time, the Jaina teachers further developed their system of worship. Somadeva included it among samāyika-siksa-vrata 01 the customary worship and devoted a full chapter to the Jaina system of worship.
1. SP, Brahmachari, Grhastha-dharma, v. 119, p. 144.