Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 69

52
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
Kannada, or Mālayālam, --you will see that they deal with some aspects of Ahimsā in their writings.
There is a Tamil book, "Tolkāppiyam', which is one of the oldest Tamil literary works belonging to about the 3rd centuty B.C., speaks about Ahimsā. It is in three parts. The first deals with phonology of centamiz, that is, the letters (ezuttu) of Tamil. The second deals with words, forms and inflections (col) and the third has literature (porul.), and 'alańkāra' as well. In this literature too there are some passages on Ahimsā. I have read a translation of the 'Kural.' belonging to the 3rd or 4th cent. A.D., a very famous Tamil literature, which, some claim, was written by the Jains; and I find that it describes Ahiṁsā as one of the great domestic and ascetic virtues.
So when the Jains started establishing the truth in accepting Ahimsā as fundamental of human life, they started philosophizing it, prepared a logic and ultimately tried their best to establish Ahiṁsā as a kind of philosophy. That is why whenever we talk of Jainism, we relate it to Ahimsā. It is thus described or delineated by almost all types of people.
Finally, another important aspect of Jainism is the 'karma' theory. Why does any life, be it human or animal, get rebirth? According to Buddhism, it is because we have tanhā (tışņā) 'desire'. When this desire is not fulfilled in this life we are reborn again to fulfill our desires. In Hinduism many reasons are given for rebirth. One of them is that as the Cittaśuddhi has not been done in this life, we are reborn. It is the Jains who say that we are born again and again, because our'karmakşaya' is not yet done completely. It is because you have not completely eradicated the effect of karma that you have done in this life, you are bound to take your birth again. So rebirth is common to all philosophies, but the reasons of rebirth are different. It is only the Jains who believe that as long as karma is not destroyed, beings are bound to come back again.