Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism

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

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A Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism
(b)
it originated out of the intellectual ferment and the socio-economic changes during the later Vedic period.
(c) it is purely Aryan but non-Vedic tradition. (a) Since the ideological contents and ontological perspectives of the Šramaņa tradition, mainly consisting of Jainism. Buddhism and Ajivikism, were different from and opposed to the Vedic tradition, it was taken to be non-Vedic tradition by many scholars and its roots were searched in the non-Aryan culture complex of ancient India. Certain basic tenets of the Sramana tradition such as atomism,. doctrine of transmigration, the idea of salvation etc. were taken by some scholars to be continuation of the thought stream of the aborigines of the Gangetic valley.
Commenting on the contribution of the proto-Austroloids to the development of Indian culture S. K. Chatterjee writes, "The bed-rock of Indian civilization is agriculture, and that, in all likelihood in connection with the cultivation of rice, goes back to the Austric proto-Austroloids of India. The germs of the idea of transmigration which has been so potent a force in Indian thought, religion and life, would probably go to this source". Since no traces of yoga are found in the Rigveda’, its existence in the Indus Valley culture is taken as an evidence to suggest that the Śramana tradition had pre-Vedic non-Aryan roots“. The references of muni and yati in the Rigveda and later-vedic texts have been taken as pieces of evidence to prove the existence of alien Šramaņa tradition in the Rigvedic and Pre-Vedic period?.
In fact, vățarasanã muni and yati have been taken to be the representatives of the śramaņa tradition during Vedic and Pre-Vedic period. Vãtarasanã in collocation with Muni has been mentioned at several places, the first being the Kesi Sūkta of the Rigvedal. The reference of the Rigveda, Taittirīya' Āramyaka and Bhõgavata Purīna'' are cited in order to show that their features and practices