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JAINISM IN PUNJABI LANGUAGE
(Contribution of Ravinder Jain & Puruhottam Jain)
-Dr. Dharam Singh
Jainism belongs to the 'sramanic' tradition, the earliest religious tradition in India and perhaps in the world. It is said to be not only pre-Vedic in origin but also distinct from and some times contradictory to Vedic metaphysics and moral values. In fact, the origin of Jainism can be traced to pre-historic times : the founder of Jainism and first of the 24 Tirthankaras of Jainism, Lord Rishabh, belongs to pre-historic era. References to him are found in the Rig Veda, the earliest extent religions literature in India. It can be easily concluded from such references that, one, Jainism belongs to pre-Vedic times and, second, it was quite a popular tradition during the RigVedic days.
Among the peculiar characteristics of Jainism are its refusal to have faith in the existence of an ultimate Reality responsible for the creation, preservation and ultimate destruction of this manifest world (Jainism believes in the plurality of soul), stress on a simple and austere life and cultivation of moral and ethical values in personal as well as in social life. The Jainas are strictly vegetarian and they give paramount importance to celebacy/chastity.
The Karma plulosophy in Jainism is perhaps the most detailed and comprehensive. Emphasis herein is on performing good, selfless deeds, and finally to cause cessation of all Karma. These and such other metaphysical and moral tenets of Jainism are summed up in the nine tatva and have been discussed in detail in all the 45 agams of the faith.
In fact, Jainism is quite a new name given to the tradition. In the Vedas and the Puranas it has variously been written as arihat or arihan. It has also been called nirgranth or nigganth. It has been so called since it is not a religion of the Book, i.e., a religion having faith in revelatory word and since it refused to accept the revelatory character of the Vedas. In some of the Jain sutras, Jin Shasan, Jin Marg and Jin Bachan have also been use as synonyms of Jainism. Thus, Jainism is a distinct and independent religion of Indian origin. However, Hinduism has tried to own the Jaina Tirthankaras either as attributive names of Vishnu or Shiva or as their incarnations. This is not something new as Hinduism has always tried to assimilate any other tradition that came in contact with it. Lord Buddha and even Guru Nanak have also been referred to as incarnations of Vishnu, a Hindu god.
Almost all the Jaina Shastras are originally in Prakrit/Ardh Magadhi. This is unlike the early Hindu belief which declared Sanskrit to be a language of gods, the only language which could convey divine ideas. The Jaina Shastras are in a language comprehensible to common man. However, later on when Jain scholars and savants received royal pationage beginning with King Vikramadityais rule, these Shastras came to be transcribed in Sanskrit language. May be, these scholars under royal pationage wanted to write in a language different from that of the common man. Although the last Tirthankar (Lord Mahavira) of Jainism was born and received enlightenment in East India yet be travelled quite extensively throughout the Punjab. The Jaina
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