Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): S Gopalan
Publisher: Wiley Eastern Private Limited New Delhi

Page 13

JAINISM
The resemblances he has in mind here are probably the following: (1) both the religions originated in the same part of India (2) both were opposed to the orthodox views that prevailed in the country at that time (3) both were against the caste structure of the Hindu society (4) both have denounced the idea of a personal god (1śvara) in their respective systems (5) both make use of identical terms, though with different connotations and (6) both have accorded greater importance to the concept and practice of non-injury (ahimsā) than even Hinduism.
The wrong understanding that results when a scholar scans through some translations of classical texts in order to find support for his own point of view is not a situation peculiar to Indian thought and it requires no elaboration here. That Jainism has been considered, even by the academic world, as a mere offshoot of Buddhism requires to be noticed here. W.S. Lilly writes : “Buddhism in proper survives in the land of its birth in the form of Jainism. What is certain is that Jainism came into notice when Buddhism had disappeared from India." H. H. Wilson even goes to the extent of maintaining that Jainism came into existence only during the 8th or 9th century A.D. He observes: “From all credible testimony, therefore, it is impossible to avoid the inference that the Jainas are a sect of comparatively recent institution who came into power and patronage about the 8th and 9th century: they probably existed before that date as a division of the Bauddhas, and owed their elevation to the suppression of that form of faith to which they contributed. This is positively asserted by the traditions of the south in several instances : the Bauddhas of Kanchi were confuted by Akalanka, a Jain priest, and thereupon expelled from the country. Vara Pandya of Madura, on becoming a Jain, is said to have persecuted the Bauddhas, subjecting them to personal tortures, and banishing them from the country...There is every reason to be satisfied, therefore, that the total disappearance of the Bauddhas in India proper is connected with the influence of the Jains which may have commenced in the sixth or seventh centuries and continued till the twelfth.'3 Sir Charles Eliot maintains : “Many of their doctrines especially their disregard not only of priests but of gods, which
2 Cited by C.J. Shah, Jainism in North India (London : Longman Green & Co., 1932), 'Intr., p. xviii
3 Works of Wilson (London : Trubner & Co., 1861), Vol. I, p. 334