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Jaina Contribution To Indian Culture
Dr Vilas A Sangave
Jainism is an ancient religion of India and right from hoary antiquity to the present day it has continued to flourish, along with other religions, in different parts of India Jainas, the followers of Jainism, are, therefore, found all over India from ancient times The Tainas are known everywhere for the strict observance of their religious practices in their daily lives That is why, Jainism could survive in India for the last so many centuries The Jainas, in this way, succeeded in continuing to exist as devout followers of a distinct religion in India But this is not the only distinguishing feature of Jainas in India In fact the most outstanding characteristic of Jainas in India is their impressive record of contributions to Indian culture In comparison with the limited and small population of Jainas, the achievements of Jainas in enriching the aspects of Indian culture are really great
Literature
Perhaps the most creditable achievement of Jainas is in the field of literature It is evident that right from the Vedic period two different currents of thought and ways of life known as Brahmana culture and Shramana culture are prevalent in India The Shramana culture is mainly represented by Jainas and the Buddhists and of them the Jainas were the first to propagate that culture That is why from ancient times we have the Shramana literature besides the Brahmanic literature The authors of this Shramana literature have contributed their full share to religious, ethical, poetical and scientific literature of ancient India A close examination of the vast religious literature of the Jainas has been made by the great oriental scholar M Winternitz in his "A History of Indian Literature " The Jainas were foremost in composing various kinds of narrative literature like Puranas, Charitras, Kathas, Prabandhas, etc Besides a very extensive body of poetical and narrative literature the noncanonical literature of the Jainas consists partly of independent works on dogma, ethics and monastic discipline They also compiled legends of saints and composed works on ecclesiastical history Always fond of story-telling, the Jaina writers were good story-tellers themselves, and have
