The Jain 1988 07

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Samaj Europe

Page 80

gáin=
JAINISM AND
THE W E S T E R N
WORLD
A Greek writer, Hesycnios, of the fifth century A.D. explains the Greek word gennoi as 'naked philolsophers'. This may be the earliest surviving written reference in the West to the Jains. However this indentification of gennoi with Jains is problematic and we should be wise not to take it as definite or even probable. The story of the contacts between Jainism and the Western world has still to be written and in this slight paper I do not propose to attempt the task. All I intend to do is say a little about Western knowledge of Jainism in the past and discuss briefly the growth of Western scholarship on Jainism as well as efforts by Jain scholars to make knowledge of their faith available to the West. I want briefly to relate Jainism to the Western religious tradition. Finally I shall say something about Jainism and the Western world in modern times, now that communities of emigrant Jains are established in Europe and America. There is a Jain tradition that Jain monks travelled as far West as modern Austria and there is nothing inherently improbable about this. Of course, the rule that Jain monks may travel only on foot meant that the extensive missionary work of Buddhist monks in other lands had no counterpart in Jainism which has remained until recently almost entirely confined to the Indian sub-continent. In medieval Europe religious toleration was unknown. It was believed that the one holy Catholic Church guarded the only route to salvation. Any person who challenged the beliefs of the Church not only put his own soul's future at risk but was also a source of infection, a cancer within the body of the Church which must be cured, or, as a last resort, cut out to prevent its spread. Nevertheless heretics did arise, and in some cases heretical movements
attracted large numbers of followers and survived for relatively long periods before the forces of orthodoxy regained control. One such movement was the Cathar heresy which emerged in the twelfth contury, became powerful in the thirteenth and all but disappeared in the fourteenth. The religion of the Cathars derived from various sources : some of its most fundamental beliefs may be traceable back to Zoroastrianism, the religion of ancient Iran (represented now by the Parsis of India). However certain beliefs and practices of the Cathars show interesting parallels with Jain beliefs and practices. Firstly, the Cathar community was composed of a class of lay believers and a class of men and women known as the Perfect. To join the ranks of the Perfect a rigorous period of probation was necessary. Fasting and austerities were frequent and severe, diet was almost strictly vegetarian, avoiding not only meat and eggs but also dairy products (though not fish), complete celibacy was required. Can we not see parallels here with the Jain sadhu? The Perfect were held in great respect by the laity who bowed down three times on greeting them. Secondly, there was a belief, held by some (but not all) Cathars in the transmigration of the soul from one body to another, higher or lower according to one's merits, until rebirth in a body which became a Perfect could lead to release from the cycle of birth and death and the attainment of heaven. This is completely different from the Christian view of the soul's destiny but will be familiar to Jains. The most interesting parallel, however, is that between the Cathar practice of endura and Jain sallekhana. Like the Jain, the Cathar Perfect (or perhaps a lay person who had just undergone an initiation ritual), when old and infirm, would sometimes refuse food and drink and quietly compose himself or herself to religious thoughts until death supervened. Any connection between Catharism and Jainism must be speculative, in any case the differences are greater than the similarities. But it is strange to find what is, in effect, the rite of sallekhana transposed to Western Europe. The roots of Catharism have been traced to the Balkans and it is not totally fanciful to suggest that travellers, perhaps even Jain monks, provided a link which brought some Jain beliefs from India to Europe. Let us now move on many centuries. It appears that little or nothing was known in Europe about
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