Religion and Culture of the Jains

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

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
Tīrthankara, which saw the rise of the Vedic Aryans and their Brāhmaṇical culture and civilization. The period in which the next nine Tirthankaras, viz. Sreyāmsa born in Simhapuri, Vāsupūjya in Campāpurī, Vimala in Kāmpilya, Ananta in Ayodhyā, Dharma in Ratnapurī, śānti, Kunthu and Ara, all three in Hastināpura and Mallinātha in Mithilāpurī, flourished witnessed the gradual Aryanisation of the country and the expansion of the power of the Vedic Aryans. In the times of Munisuvrata, Nami and Nemi (Aristanemi), respectively the twentieth, twentyfirst and twentysecond of the Tīrthankaras, the temporal power of the Vedic Aryan Kșatriyas, their sacrificial cult and the ascendancy of the Vedic Brāhmaṇas were at their zenith. But, it was also during this period that their decline and downfall had set in. Rāma, the hero of the Brāhmaṇical Rāmāyaṇa is also the hero of the Jaina Padmapurāņa, and flourished in the age of the Tīrthankara Munisuvrata (born in Rājagțha). It appears that Rāma was probably the first great man to attempt a sort of reconciliation between the Brāhmaṇa (Vedic) and Śramaņa (Vrātya) systems. It was also in this period that interpretations of the Vedic texts, prescribing animal sacrifice, were for the first time questioned in the Vedic fold itself, as is evident from the story of Vasu, Nārada and Parvata, which it is curious to note, is found in both the Jaina and Brāhmaṇical traditions. It is also not without significance that this Vasu was the ruler of Rājagțha which had been the birth place of the twentieth Tīrthankara. His successor, the Tīrthankara Nami, who was born at Mithilā in Videha, seems to have been instrumental, through his teachings, in the initiation of the mystico-spiritualistic thought which gave rise to the philosophy of the Upanişads. This philosophy was opposed to the sacrificial cuit, and its chief centre came to be Mithilā. In fact, these events marked the beginning of the movement for the revival of Sramaņa dharma in the later Vedic age.