Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 164

Tara Sethia, "Mahavira's Teachings in Indian History Textbooks"
rationalism of the Buddha to the esotericism of Mahavira. [Keay, pp. 63-64]
,,13
The above description about the sixth century BCE India appears to employs, what Richard Inden calls, "the curious metaphors." In the above passage the author simultaneously uses mystical and scornful expressions which paint certain images in the minds of the reader. The reader is burdened with philosophical terms without a clue to their meaning. There is also the question of contradiction. For example, how can one renounce and yet be an "outright materialist"? How can something be termed as esoteric without even describing it?
Keay's preoccupation with the trivial and sensational remains a hallmark of the book. Without digressing, let me give one more example of this characteristic in the context of the topic of this paper. While no significant space is provided to the discussion of key concepts and teachings of Mahāvīra, one is struck by the way the reference to Jain tradition is made. In the context of Alexander the Great's campaign (other invaders of India as well are of great interest to Keay), Keay introduces and discusses at length a person named 'Calanus' whom he considers "a figure worth remembering" as he was the first Indian expatriate. Preoccupied with chronology and dates, Keay is able to assign Calanus a date as he accompanied Alexander to Persia and died shortly before the latter did, without making any impact on the Greeks. However, unable to assign him to particular philosophical school, he tells us the following.
Calanus and his friends went naked, a condition, in which no Greek could be persuaded to join them, they may have been nigantha or Jains. Jain nudity was dictated by that sect's meticulous respect for life in all its forms. Clothes were taboos because the wearer might inadvertently crush any insect concealed in them; similarly death had to be so managed that only the dying would actually die. Jains bent on ending their life, therefore, usually starved themselves to death. Yet Calanus, a man of advanced years, chose to immolate himself
13 Richard Inden, Imagining India, op. cit., p.1.
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