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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
'Jainism’ is the religion professed by the Jainas, so called because they follow the path practised and preached by the Jinas, lit., conquerors of self. The term is an English rendering of the original Jaina-dharma or Jina-dharma. German Jainologists, like, Leumann, Winternitz and Schubring, prefer the form Jinismus or Jinism, which they consider to be the etymologically correct rendering. Both the forms are, however, correct, Jainism meaning the religion of the Jainas and Jinism that of the Jina, although the former is more popular and in current use both in literature and common parlance. Jainism is an important, fully developed and well established religious and cultural system, purely indigenous to India. It still retains certain most primitive conceptions, and is the oldest living representative of that ancient śramaņa current of Indian culture which was, in its origin, non-Vedic and probably nonAryan and even pre-Aryan. We may well quote here the conclusions of a few notable orientalists in this respect. Prof. M.S. Ramaswami Ayengar: “With, however, our present knowledge of the Jainas and their sacred literature, it is not difficult to prove that Jainism, far from being an offshoot of Buddhism or Brāhmanism, was one of the earliest home religions of India."
