Lecture On Jainism

Author(s): Lala Banarasidas
Publisher: Anuvrat Samiti

Page 10

( 2) sing with their mute tongues; the only religion which has for thousands of years past advocated the cause of the silent-tongued animals; the only religion which has denounced slaughter of animals for sacrifice, food, hunting, or any other purpose whatsoever; the only religion which has fully acted up to the principle of Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah! and carried it out faithfully and loyally; and making hundreds of people its converts, has saved myriads of lives that should have been otherwise massacred for providing them with food, if they were life-eaters, and for the purpose of their sacrifices and hunting, if they were addicted to these evils also.
Gentlemen, I stand before you to speak on the Daya-Maya Dharma, Jainism, which saved lives not only by making thousands of people its converts from the moment when the Rishi Rishabha first preached it, down to the present date, but which also moved the heart of even non-Jain Rajas and kings who issued Firmans and proclamations to save the slaughter of animals wherever Jains lived. We not only read that such Jain Rajas as the celebrated Asoka (and he was a Jain according to Raja Tarangini. Ain-iAkbari, Asoka Avadhana, the inscriptions at Girnar, and Jain traditions, before he became a Bauddha) proclaimed from the icy Himalaya down to Cape Comorin, from Gujerat to Behar, that no animal should be killed for any purpose whatsoever, but we also read that such Mahomcdan kings as the mighty and tolerant Akbar issued Firmans that no animal should be