Book Title: Studies in Jainism
Author(s): Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
Publisher: Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture Culcutta
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STUDIES IN JAINISM as Saraswati, Laksmî, Kāli, Mahākāli, Cakreswari. Ambikā, Padmāvatî, and Siddhikā.
The moot point I intend to make is that different religious traditions of our great Indian culture have borrowed various concepts from one another and that it is a duty to study and highlight this mutual impact, which is the need of the hour, and thus bridge the gulf existing between different religious systems.
Though it is true that the Sramaņik tradition in general and Jainism and Buddhism in particular have some distinct features discriminating them from the Vedic or Brāhmaṇic tradition, yet they are not foreigners. They are the children of the same soil who carne forward with a spirit of reform. It is sometimes mistakenly thought that Jainism and Buddhism were a revolt against Brāhmanism. Western scholars in particular maintain this notion. But here I would like to say that it was not revolt but reform. In fact, Vedic and Áramaņik traditions are not rival traditions as some Western and Indian scholars think. There seems to have been a deliberate effort to create a gulf between Jainism and Buddhism on the one hand and Hinduism on the other, by Western scholars. Unfortunately some Indian scholars, even Jain scholars, also supported their views but in my humble opinion this was a step in the wrong direction. It is true that Šramanik and Vedic traditions have divergent views on certain religious and philosophical issues; their ideals of living also differ considerably. But this does not mean that they are rivals or enemies of each other. As passions and reason, śreya and preya, in spite of being different in their very nature, are the components of human personality, so is the case with Sramanik and Vedic traditions. Though inheriting distinct features, they are the components of one whole Indian culture. Jainism and Buddhism were not rivals to Hinduism, but what they preached to the Indian society was an advance stage in the field of spirituality compared to Vedic ritualism.
If the Upanişadic trend, in spite of taking a divergent stand from Vedic ritualism, is considered part and parcel of Hinduism, what is the difficulty in measuring Jainism and
