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154
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
arhan nityatha jaina-śāsana-ratāḥ karmeti
mimāņsakāḥ so'yam vo vidadhātu vāñchita-phalam
trailokyanātho Hariḥ !
“Whom the Saivas worship as Siva, and the Vedāntins as Brahma, the Buddhists, expert in logic, as Buddha and the Naiyāyikas the creator and the Jainas, adherent to the teachings of Jina, as arhan (i.e. Jina) and the Mimāņsakas consider as the karma (actions) that Hari, the Lord of the three worlds, gives us the fruit desired by
us."
These above mentioned two passages will show how a sort of secularism in the modern sense of the term was prevalent in the middle history of India which shows a sense of tolerance among the kings where all sorts of religious faiths could live together without any enmity. Ahimsā at the time of Mahāvira as reflected in
Jainism
The contribution of the Jains to ahimsā can be ransacked from their literature only. In the Jaina Hagiology, there were twenty-four TirthařkarasĀdinātha or Rşabhadeva was the first and Vardhamāna Mahāvira was the last. In the sixth century B.C., Vardhamāna Mahāvīra (599 B.C. - 527 B.C.) flourished. In course of his wonderings from place to place, Mahāvīra preached his doctrines and sermons. Among his doctrinal tenets ahimsā got its prominence. Actually, what Mahāvīra talked about ahimsā cannot be known authentically, because most of his teachings and doctrines have come down to us through his disciples and their descendants who have kept the sayings of Mahāvīra in their memory for nearly a thousand years after his nirvana in 527 B.C. till the second council of Valabhi in the 5th century A.D. which codified the doctrines of Mahāvīra in the present form of the Āgamas of both the sects.
