Jainism vis a vis Brahmanism

Author(s): Bansidhar Bhatt
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Jainism vis-à-vis Brahmanism
Bansidhar Bhatt
1) Introductory : Jainism is known for its ahimsa-ideal and karmadoctrine. Also, transmigration of the souls and wandering ascetic life are the additional ideas attributed to Jainism. Almost all scholars of Jaina community consider the Vedic or the Brahmanical texts lacking in the origins of ahimsă-ideal, karma-theory, transmigration of the souls and asceticism, and try to establish Jainisin to be originated from an early non-Vedic, or say, pre-Vedic culture.
Without entering into the pros and cons of such a hypothesis, we intend in this paper to supply passages from the earliest strata of the Svetămbara Jaina Canon and passages parallel to them from the Brahmanical texts in order to illustrate mutual resemblances between the two types of literature, and moreover as “Prolegomena" to these parallels, we mention relevant views in summary form for showing how and in which situation the reform religions-Ajivikism, Jainism, Buddhism, etc.--came into existence in India.
The texts of the Svetambara Jaina Canon selected for the parallel passages are the Ācāränga-sūtra, the Sūtrakrtänga-sutra, the Uttaradhyayana-sútra, the Daśavaikālika-sūtra and the Rsibhāsitāni. They generally belong to an early period ranging from the earliest period c. B. C. 3rd cent, to the latest period c. 6th cent. A. D. in the history of the Jaina literature, whereas, most of the corresponding Brahmanical passages are earlier than and some of them are at least contemporary to the Jaina passages as a whole.
(2) Limitations : We mention here precisely the views of some scholars frorn their analytical studies of early Brahmanical and Buddhist texts, but we have to refrain from including the analytical details into the scope of