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BANERJEE: JAINISM AND NON-VIOLENCE
this act of the Great Akbar remarks: "It was this scrupulous regard for the religious opinions of all the varied sects within his mighty realm, that procured this monarch the inevitable designation of Jagat Guru, 'the guardian of mankind', and which caused him to be regarded by the Vaisnavas as an incarnation of Kanhaiya." (pp. 290-91)
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This beneficial act of Akbar granted in 1589, was recorded in one of the inscriptions at Satruñjaya.
Similarly, in the reign of Shah Jahan another grant was made under the seal of his second son Murad Bakhsh, the Governor of Gujarat, by which the hill and surrounding district was given in perpetual inām to Satidas Javheri, a Sravaka and jeweller to the Court".
The Intellectual Ahimsa1
The intellectual ahimsa is not considered as himsā (violence) by the Jains, even though the Jains have vāk gupti (practices of restrained of speech) and bhāṣā-samiti (self-regulation of speech). We can infer this from the study of Jain literature. Whenever the Jains have got a chance, they have criticised the views of the Buddhists and the Hindus. Here I give a few examples to show how the process of intellectual himsā (violence) was carried out without being realised that the Jains are transgressing their rules vāk gupti and bhäṣā-samiti.
In the Sūtra-kṛtānga (1. 3. 64-68), one of the Agama texts of the Śvetambara Jains, the final deduction of which was completed by 454 A.D., the Vedic conception of the ultimate Reality or Divinity as an outside creator-God was severely criticised:
iņam anna tu annanam iham egesim ahiyam/ deva-utte ayam loe bambha-utte tu avare || 64 ||
1992.
1. The Violence of Non-violence: A Study of some Jain Responses to Non-Jain Religious Practices, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 15: 1-43,
