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BANERJEE : JAINISM AND NON-VIOLENCE
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The English word tolerance was incorporated in Middle English from the Latin word tolerantia which again has come from Latin tolerat(us) which is a present participle form from the Latin tolerare which originally means "to bear.” Lexicographically, tolerance means "a fair and objective attitude towards opinions and practices which differ from one's own”. In English history, John Locke (1632-1704) was, perhaps, the first who used the term tolerance applying it to the study of ancient religion in his book Letters concerning Toleration published in 1689 (subsequently reprinted in 1690, 1692 and so on). Locke was greatly influenced by Thomas Hobbes (15881679), the most important English philosopher between Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and John Locke. In a recently published text-Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity edited by Guy G. Stroumsa and Grahan N. Stanton, Stroumsa in his Postscript : The Future of Intolerance has made a remark that “tolerance was not a virtue in the ancient world." John E. Cort is of opinion that Stroumsa's observation may equally be applicable to the Jains.
The word upagraha is often used in Jain literature for indicating the idea of “mutual existence". It was as early as in the first or fifth century A.D. Umāsvāmi (or Umāsvāti) used the term in this sense in his Tattvārthasūtra (V. 21) in the line parasparopagraho jivānām “(The function) of souls is to help one another."
The oldest commentary of this text is the Sarvārthasiddhi by Sri Pūjyapāda belonging to the sixth or seventh century A.D. He has explained the line as follows:
“The word paraspara means reciprocity of action parasparasya upagrahaḥ means rendering help to another. That is, the help rendered by the living to one another. What is it? It is mutual help between the master and the servant, the teacher and the taught. The master renders help to the servants by giving them money. And they serve
