Outlines of Jainism

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

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JAINISM
countenance the worshipping of mortal forms. In this connection Jacobi points out that rather than referring to the worshipping of prophets to account for the origin of either Jainism or Buddhism it is more logical and true to facts to point to the higher religious consciousness of the Indian people. He opines that the people in general felt the need for a higher cult than that of their rude deities and demons and the religious development of India found in bhakti the supreme means of salvation. Therefore instead of seeing in the Buddhists the originals and in the Jainas the imitators it is more reasonable to assume that both sects independently of each other adopted this practice by the perpetual and irresistible influence of the religious development of the Indian people.13 The practice itself is attributable to the lay followers of both the religions and in this the strong religious consciousness of the Indian people must have played a dominant role.
It is heartening for us to find support for our view in Dasgupta who observes: "The pioneers of this new system probably drew their suggestions from the sacrificial creed and from the Upanisads, and built their systems independently by their own rational thinking.' ."'14 Jacobi also maintains: "Buddhism and Jainism must be regarded as religions developed out of Brahmanism, not by sudden reformation, but prepared by a religious movement going on for a long time."15 It is interesting to notice that a scholar like Eliot, who is more sympathetic to Buddhism than to Jainism endorses the view that both the heterodox systems must have had their roots in the Brahmanic religion. It is significant that in the process of explaining the origin of Jainism and Buddhism he concedes the earlier origin of Jainism, though he speaks in high praise of the sisterfaith, Buddhism. He writes: "Both are offshoots of a movement which was active in India in the 6th century B.C. in certain districts and especially among the aristocracy. Of these offshoots-the survivors among many which had hardly outlived their birth--Jainism was a trifle the earlier, but Buddhism was superior and more satisfying to the intellect and moral sense alike. Out of the theory and practice of religious life current in their time Gotama fashioned
13 Ibid., Intr., p. xi
14 op. cit., Vol. I, p. 120
15 Jaina Sutras, pt. I, Intr., p. xxxii