Jambu Jyoti

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad

Page 20

Jainism vis-à-vis Brahmanism
“ksatriya revolution”, because the ksatriyas played a significant role from the beginning in initiating philosophical ideas in the Vedic/Brahmanical literature and also in the east. This revolution paved a way for the ensuing one of a democratic type (see below) which reached its culmination during the period of the Ājīvika : Gosāla, the Buddha, the Mahāvīra, and the others.
The reformists prescribed their own precepts for their followers who were mostly śramaņas, and borrowed some material from the literature of the commons for their laypersons who, due to which, appeared to have been "hinduised", since such a material of the folk's literature was borrowed and inserted also in the orthodox scriptures of the Hindus (cp. Horsch. p. 467).
(22) The Buddhists and the Jainas : - Most of the speculative ideas developed in the east have been somehow survived in the Jātakas, the Dhammapadas, and also in the early canonical literature of the Jainas and the Buddhists. But these scholiasts had no direct contact with, or sufficient knowledge of the existing orthodox Brahmanical texts. On the contrary, they remained confined to their organisations and had superficial and limited contact with the brahmanical circles of only the lower and popular strata (cp. Horsch. pp. 64-67, 462 with footnote 1). Under the circumstances, many speculative ideas in various dialects of the time developed within the boundaries of the popular strata, and are conspicuous for their mutual influences on contents and forms (Horsch. p. 363).
(23) Democratization in Reform : — It has been stated above (18-19, 21-22) that the literature of the commons had influenced both : the literature of the orthodox Aryans as also that of the Jainas and the Buddhists. This can be called a second revolution-a democratic reform, in which all the élite actually accepted and utilised the popular thought-material and evaluated it on par with their ideas in social and spiritual spheres (cp. Horsch. pp. 481-482).
(24) Sanskrit-Prakrit Parallels : As such, to get mutually resembling passages from the later orthodox texts and the Jaina or the Buddhist texts is just a matter of course. But to trace them also from the early Brahmanical texts and especially from the early Jaina texts is not altogether difficult, such an effort in point of fact is rewarding. We sometimes can have from them verbal common expressions, and sometimes passages similar in ideas.