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FIFTH VOW OF VARDHAMANA MAHẬVÎRA : ITS CAUSES
Ram Chandra Jain
“The first (those under first Tirthankaras) Saints were simple but slow of understanding, the last saints prevaricating and slow of understanding, those between the two simple and wise, hence there are two forms of laws.":1
Thus said Gautama to Kesi on his question, "The Law taught by the great sage Parsva, recognises but four vows, whilst that of Vardhamana enjoins five. Both laws pursuing the same end, what has caused this difference ?"2
Gautama's answer may be a complete truth but this does not satisfy the modern scientific scholar. Scholars have accepted that Parsava was a great historical personage and Mahâvîra came 250 years after him. There must have been great socio-historical forces at work during this period that brought this revolutionary change converting the nature of simple and wise people into prevaricating and slow.
Aryo-Brahms had finally subjugated the western parts of Bharata after their victory in Dasrajna war Circa 1150 B. C. They had settled in the region of Saraswati and Drsadvati valleys which they renamed Brahmavarta. Eminent scholars maintain that the Aryo-Brahms, who later came to be known as Vedic people, were associated with great acts of violence in war and in peace which the original people of Bharata strenously opposed. The violence aspect of Vedic culture is rightly given prominence but its another aspect, the aspect of sex-relationship, has not even been given due recongnition.
We find three strata of sex-relationship of the Vedic people in Rigveda and later Vedic literature. Firstly, unlicensed
