Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Mysore (Karnataka) and the Tamil countries, while the principal strongholds of the Svetāmbaras are western Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat. Some Jainas have also gone out of the country and are found residing in Nepal, Burma, Ceylon, Japan, south and east Africa, America and certain European countries.
Certain misconceptions about the character, position, genesis and history of Jainism may be noticed prevailing among even some of those who are supposed to be educated and wellinformed. Many a non-Jaina pundit, Indian as well as nonIndian may be heard passing, cursorily, remarks like: Jainism is an insignificant, little known or an obscure minor sect of the Hindus, or a dissenter from Hinduism, or that it is a derivation from Buddhism. There are others who have failed to comprehend the Jaina philosophy of anekānta, its syādvādic mode of predication, the Jaina metaphysics and the theory of karman, or to appreciate the scope and significance of the Jaina doctrine of ahimsā. The cultural contributions of Jainism have not been duly evaluated, nor has the role of Jainism in the context of present day world problems been properly assessed.
Certain seals as old as, perhaps five to eight thousand years, belonging to the pre-historic Indus Valley civilization and bearing the figures of a nude yogin in the characteristically Jaina kāyotsarga (perfect bodily abandonment) posture along with the bull emblem, as also the nude male Harappan torsos, seem to point to the prevalence of the worship of Rşabha or Adinātha, the first Lord of the Jaina tradition in that remote age. The rise of Vedicism, when the early Vedic hymns collected in the Rgveda were composed, belongs to a later period. In a number of hymns of the Rgveda which is supposed to be the earliest known or available book in world's library, Rşabha is alluded to directly and indirectly, as is also the case with the other Vedas. Besides him, severel other Tīrthankaras, who succeeded him, find mention in the Vedic literature, and the