Path of Arhat

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Smarak Parshwanath Shodhpitha Varanasi

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Mahavira: A Non-violent Revolutionary
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rituals and priestly hegemony must have also blurred the philosophical distinction between their thinking in the eyes of the laity.
All available materials show that most of the non-monarchical states of that period, except the Vajjis, were not properly managed by their oligarchical systems. The terms 'Gaṇa' and 'Sangha' were used for these states and their leaders were known as 'Rajas'. They kept on fighting amongst themselves and rendered the administration insecure for people. People therefore wanted stability under the suzerainty of a strong ruler. Therefore, non-monarchical states were eventually destroyed.
Social Conditions
Social conditions in the time of Mahavira were more ripe for the change. India has always been a stinkingly casteridden society, which, in those days was dominated by a priestly order, which was socially and economically interested in tightening its hold on the social and political structure through the monopoly of its knowledge of sacrificial rituals. Birth, and not the profession or merits, was the criterion to decide the caste complexion. Knowledge of scriptures was not open to Sudras, the lower castes. Untouchables were social outcastes and their condition was full of miseries. Even their sight was considered inauspicious. Inequality was the rule of the day. Women, who had equal status with men in earlier centuries, were treated more or less as personal property of their husbands. To have more than one wife was considered prestigious by the rich. There were special and more favourable laws for Brahmins. The system of slavery had taken roots. Human slaves were sold, purchased and gifted. Defeated king's family and subjects were taken in booty as slaves. Princes were fighting amongst themselves for trivial causes and mostly for expansion of their territories even though some of them were related to each other by blood. Human happiness in this and the other world was dependent on the favours of gods who could be pleased only by sacrificial rituals. Various types of