Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism

Author(s): S N Shrivastava
Publisher: Rekha Publication Gorakhpur

Page 12

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Śramana tradition is a non-Aryan tradition is not maintainable. V.S. Pathak on the otherhand, has convincingly pleaded on linguistic and other grounds that Šramaņa tradition is non-Vedic Aryan tradition and its antiquity may be traced back to the Indo-Iranian period. The writer of these lines is in full agreement with Pathak's views.
In the present work the problems of the origin, antiquity and profile of the Sramaņa tradition have been exhaustively dealt with. The myth that whatever is non-Vedic is essentially non-Aryan has been exploded. The Aryan culture-complex had various shades, the ritualistic trend, though initially dominant, is one such. Muni of the Rigveda is not a non-Aryan figure, but a representative of the non-Vedic Aryan tradition whose weltanshauung is different from that of the Vedic.
Though much has been written about the doctrine of karma and rebirth and its place in ancient Indian traditions, scholars are not unanimous on the point of its origin and development. While a great number of scholars believe that it was natural outcome of the development of the Vedic ideas in course of time, there are many who plead that the eschatological beliefs of non-Aryan aborigines of the Gangetic Valley were adopted by the Aryans when they forward the suggestion that through ethicisation the primitive eschatological beliefs turned into the doctrine of karma and rebirth and they have given the credit of ethicisation to the Buddha. In the present work this matter has been given exhaustive treatment and it has been demonstrated that it originated and developed in the Śramanic hot-house. The primitive character of the Jain doctrine of karma and its pivotal position in Jain religion is of particular importance in this context. In addition to it, the element of animism in Jain philosophy and the concepts of dharma and adharma, which have great antiquarian significance, have been critically discussed.
The Purăņus are taken to be historical compositions as they are supposed to contain the early tales of the Aryans. Undoubtedly, their