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MAHẬVÎRA : THE SYSTEMATIZER
- Walther Schubring
Besides being a great religious personage Mahâvîra excelled himself above many of his contemporary personages in the matters of commonsense and intelligence. The canonical literature shows his deep knowledge of mathematics, logic and science. He was a great "systematizer". He had a great liking for figures and arithmetics. He was a great observe of natural phenomena, human life and above all, the reality of cosmos. His trancendental vision did not carry him to the mysticism of a vague and wierd nature. He always expressed the truth of life in the language of rigorous logic and passionless objectivity.
The present excerpt is cited from “Doctrine of the Jaina" by a German Jainologist Walther Schubring. The book is translated into English by wolf gang Beurlen and published in India by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi in 1962. Schubring is one of the most renounced Jainologists of his age. He has paid a glowing tribute to Lord Mahâvîra calling him as "the most versatile thinker we know of in ancient India.” Mahâvîra's "oratorial gift” his power of observation and analysis, his liking for mathematical and symbolical expressions, his similes and figures of speech are stressed by the author on the basis of the canonical texts. The present article deserves notice of all scholars.
[Editor] Mahâvîra: The Systematizer
Mahâvîra would never have been able to succeed without giving his words a touch of originality and power, and his oratorical gift is certain to have excelled the high measure customary in India by far. He is said to have spoken Ardhamagadhi, that is to say old Amg an idiom prior to the language of our texts. Traces of diction
