________________
126
Lord Mahavira
arrival here of basic waves of tribes of their kinsmen adopted from the local population the custom of vegetarianism, which occupied a very important place also in the syncretic faith of Jainism.
The Asuras attract much attention from amongst pre-Aryan peoples of India, who have left behind a noticeable trace of complex, syncretic faiths, which had developed in Bihar. The were apparently numerous people or more probably a big group of tribes, settled in the north and east of India and undoubtedly under went forced assimilation with the Aryans coming on their soil. The resistance of Asurasas also of other local peoples to this assimilation served as the greatest reason for the formation of anti-Brahmanic, reformatory faiths in Bihar.
Asuras, who were related possibly to the Munda people lived in closed contact with the Aryans, who had come before although it is fully possible to assume that these contacts started with the Aryans bringing the Asuras for offerings to their own gods.
In Bihar before the arrival of the Aryans, worship of funeral structures was developed. The Aryans did not adopt this custom but in the ancient Jainism, this custom was one of its essential component parts. This is a clear illustration of how actively new religions, arising in eastern Gangetic regions absorbed local tribal ways of worship. In Gaya and nearby, worship of trees which is also an indigenous cult of many local peoples, the Asuras, Birhores, Oraones, Mundas, Gonds, and others is highly developed. This cult is part and parcel of Jainism and Buddhism. It is considered that Mahâvîra Jina secured 'enlightenment while sitting under the Ashoka tree, and Buddha under the boor nim tree.
Worship of yakshas-wicked and kind spirits inflicting diseases and also driving them away, sometimes saving men's lives in the forest and sometimes destroying them-existed in ancient Bihar. Such animist representations, characteristic of the cults of all local people occupy an important place in the philosophy of Jainism.; Is it possible to speak with certainty that the Asuras were the bearers of the ancient forms of Jainism as is done by Acharya Tulsi ? Probably it is more correct to say that the cults of the Asuras entered into Jainism. The word 'Asuras' is used by the Jains themselves in a sense close to the brahmanic sense i.e. as meaning the spirits of the dead wicked people but more requently are called retinue of
