Portrait of Jain Religion

Author(s): Narendra Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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in India, Islam and Christianity came from abroad and have flourished in India. While Jainism remained confined to India, Buddhism spread to southeast Asia, China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. In the pre-vedic era, the Jain "Shramana Sanskriti" ran parallel to the "Shaiva Sanskriti" in an ambience of complementing one another.
For quite some time was erroneously assumed that both Jainism and Buddhism were offshoots of Hinduism, and came up as reformation movements for abating increasing violence, greed and lust of power by asserting the power and potential of the culture of nonviolence. This happened in the 7th century B.C. in the life time of Mahavir, the last Tirthankar of Jain religion in the present time cycle and Gautam Buddha, founder of Buddhism who were contemporaries.
Both led their respective religions, inter-alia, as reformation movements inspired by their nonviolence oriented spiritual philosophy. Gautam Buddha was junior to Mahavir, and sourced a lot of inspiration from Mahavir's teachings while charting out his middle path approach in place of intense austerity and penance prescribed in Jainism. Ancient Jain religion was rejuvenated by Mahavir, while Buddhism was founded as a new religion by Buddha. Both emphasized the relevance of their respective religions as reformation movements for correcting violenceoriented rituals and customs that had overtaken Hinduism.
Jain asceticism greatly influenced the philosophical speculations of the Upanishadic period such as through the philosophy of Nivritti (turning away from worldly life), trigupti (total abstinence by body, mind and speech) pravrajya or sanyas (reclusive renunciation), and the concept of samlekhana or santhara (voluntarily casting one's body by prolonged fasting. This has led to emphasis on penance as the means of liberation from the bondage of karma and rebirth.
Thanks to the pioneering research of noted western Jainologists like Hermann Jacobi, Buhler, James Ferguson, N.R. Guseva,
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A Portrait of Jain Religion