Book Title: Mahavira and his Teaching
Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
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ACCOUNTS OF THE JAINAS TAKEN ...
269 But the voyager who has provided irrefutable evidence of a Jaina presence in this region is the Netherlander Johan Struys! who visited Russia and Persia about 1670. Himself totally ignorant of India, he found an Indian community at Scamachi in the Safawi empire (the modern Shamakhi in Soviet Azerbaijan) some of them being brokers and some money-changers. In walking these people took great pains to avoid crushing any living creature under foot. If they met a hunter or fisherman they always tried to get him to desist from his calling, and if he rejected their proposals to buy his gun or nets, they would do all in their powers to scare away fish or birds. “They would rather die than kill any animal, even vermin and in this they are zealous observers of their law. ... This great charity extends not only to beasts but to the human kind. ... During the festivals which they celebrate seven or eight times a year they light no fires or candles for fear that flies might perish in them". On one occasion Struys notes, they had unsuccessfully offered the local ruler a considerable sum to impose a ban on the killing of all living creatures for the duration of one day,
Lack of space forbids more than the briefest comment on these travellers' reports. Their contents cover references inter alia to loca, bhikṣā, rātribhojana, mukhavastrikā, rajoharana, ālocanā, sallekhanā, and vāsaksepa. Many errors are of course apparent, especially in differentiating between various sects, and many others such as the inclusion under Jaina abhaks ya of all herbs of a red hue, are induced by confusion with Vaisnavas. Except in a very few comments like those of Ovington any intuition of the principles on which Jainism is based is lacking. Yet the reader is left profoundly impressed by the striking concurrence of the reports in voicing the respect which the ordinary Jaina layman's way of life and the monk's inflexible pursuit of ahimsā extorted from uncomprehending observers who were in no way initially predisposed in their favour.
1.
Glanius: Voyages de Jean Struys en Moscovie en Tartarie et en Perse Amsterdam, 1681, pp. 270-1.
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