Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 21

The Parivrăjakas
due to the introduction of iron implements in the field of production. When this change took place, it also transformed the existing social values and relations, giving rise to the formation of a non-productive privileged class. Thus we hear of a large number of fabulously rich merchants who patronised the new religious movements.
By that time the Janapadas were developing into Mahājanapadas leading to the rise of organised states. Out of sixteen Mahājanapadas as mentioned in the Buddhist Anguttara-nikāya and the Jaina Bhagavati-Sütra's four became distinguished as powerful states, and the forces behind the subsequent emergence of Magadhan imperialism could be seen. A trial of strength was taking place between the monarchies, 6 between the monarchical and nonmonarchical forms of government."? With the growing success of Magadhan imperialism, the decline of the republican states was inevitable.18 It has been suggested that the political troubles of the age provided its more thoughtful and sensitive souls with incentive to withdraw from the world. Thus Toynbee places Buddha in the "Times of Troubles" of the Indic World.?' The Magadhan occupation to the supreme state power required annihilation of many tribal settlements and also caused the tremendous bloodshed and massacre, which have produced a sense of social distress aid awakened the spirit of questioning. The Buddha, bewildered by the stupendous social transformation and immense bloodshed and large-scale massacre of the times causing human misery, said:
I behold the rich in the world, of the goods which they have acquired, in their folly they give nothing to others; they cagerly heap riches together and further they go in their pursuit of enjoyment. The king, although he may have conquered the kingdoms of the earth, although he may be ruler of all land this side the sea, up to the ocean's shore, would still insatiate, covet that which is beyond the sea. The princes, who rule kingdoms, rich in treasure and wealth, turn their greed against one another pondering insatiably to their desires. If these acts thus restlessly swimming in the stream of impermanence carried along by greed and carnal desire, who then can walk on earth in peace.20
It may be said at the outset that the period marked a transi