Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 15

Sramana Tradition
issue of Karman. The doctrine of Karman constituted the essential doctrine of the Srananas and its impact created an unprecedented ferment in the thought-world of the sixth century B. C. in India.
This phenomenal thought-ferment has been noted by many scholars but its genesis and significance have been explained in many different ways.3 The commonest assumption has been that this thoughtferment was a reaction to the ritualism of Vedic religion. Professor R. G. Bhandarkar pointed out that while in the north-east of India this thought-ferment was anti-Vedic, in the north-west it sought to reconcile the newer tendencies with orthodoxy.4 Buddhist and Jaina literatures represent the former while the Gitā represents the latter tendency. It has also been noted by Professors Ranade and Belvalkar that this thought-ferment is clearly traceable in Upanişadic literature and that the Upanisads give evidence of heterodox thinkers who did not accept the Vedic tradition. I had myself argued that this heterodoxy can, in fact, be discovered even in an earlier epoch since there are references to Munis and Yatis in Vedic literature. I had also argued that the essence of this heterodoxy consisted in the doctrine of Karman and rebirth as also in the practice of asceticism and Yoga. In this sense this heterodox stream could perhaps be traced back to the Indus civilization. While this is undoubtedly speculative it does remain a possibility which could only be confirmed if and when the Indus script could be deciphered. While Hrozny and S. R Rao have sought to read an Aryan language in the Indus seals, Parpola brothers have sought to decipher them on the hypothesis of a Proto-Dravidic and claim to discover an ancient astral religion in the Indus civiliza. tion.5 All such attempts, however, remain speculative.
It is interesting to note that Dr. H. L. Jain has sought to argue for the historicity of Rşabhadeva by trying to correlate the description found in the Bhāgavata with some references in the Rgvedasam
3. Belvalkar & Ranade, Creative Period of Indian Philosophy; Otto Schrader, Uber
den Stand der indischen Philosophie zur Zeit Mahaviras und Buddhas (1902); B. M. Barua, History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy; G. C. Pande, Studies
in the Origins of Buddhism. 4. R G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism and other Minor Religious Systems. 5. S. R. Rao, Lothal and the Indus Civilization ( 1973), pp. 127 ff,