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Śramaṇa, Vol. 58, No. 2-3 April-September 2007
Jainism and Meat-Eating
M.V. Shah
एवं खु नाणिणो सारं, जं न हिंसइ किंञ्चणं । अहिंसा समयं चेव, एतावतं विआणिआ । । सूयगडांग सूत्र,
It is an indisputable fact that the very root on which the edifice of Jainism stands is 'Ahimsa'. Coming across certain phrases or sentences in the Jaina scriptures, some are led to believe that in the times gone by meat-eating was common among the Jains including the Jaina monks. In old times some people used to think in the same way and in modern times, too, the learned Prof. Hermann Jacobi and Prof. Hoernle followed the same wake of belief. This controversy was revived latter on by a renowned scholar of Buddhism, Pt. Dharmanand Koshambi. In his publication 'Bhagvana Buddha' the learned writer has touched this subject, giving references of Jain Sūtras, that just as Lord Buddha and his disciples were used to meat-eating, Lord Mahāvīra and his disciples were also used to the same thing.
Many scholars of Jainism have, before this, tried to refute this way of thinking, and this article, too, is nothing but an honest effort on my part to further expound this subject.
In three Jaina scriptures we come across a few sentences in which are used the words अट्ठिअं, मंसं and मच्छं, - this is the circumstance which has given rise to so much controversy, because the critics have interpreted such words in their own way and naturally the readers are lead by the interpretations of these critics. But interpretations cannot be said to be infallible. Because it is almost the daily experiences of a student of language that the same work admitting of With curtsey -Bharatiya Vidya, Vol. V
