.DE Edition 2 online magazine THE RISE, DECLINE AND RENEWALS OF SRAMANIC RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS WITHIN INDIC CIVILISATION WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE EVOLUTION OF JAIN SRAMANIC CULTURE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE INDIC CIVILIZATION by BAL PATIL, Member, Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai PAPER READ IN Conference on Religions in Indic Civilisation New Delhi December 18 -21, 2003 Organised by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in collaboration with International Association for the History of Religions and India International Centre, New Delhi .DE Edition 2 online magazine content PRE-ARYAN ROOTS........................................................................................................... 4 MISLEADING STEREOTYPES ABOUT JAINISM........................................................ 5 CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA AND JAINISM ................................................................ 6 RADHA KUMUD MOOKERJI AND CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA........................... 7 ASHOKA & JAINISM.......................................................................................................... 9 R. THAPAR , AND HISTORICAL SOURCES IN PURANAS AND VEDAS................. 9 E. H. CARR: WHAT IS HISTORY?................................................................................. 10 PROF. M. WITZEL & VEDIC AND ITIHASA-PURANA TRADITION...................... 12 RIGVEDIC TEXTS LIKE TAPE RECORDED RECITATION? .................................. 13 FALSITY OF WITZEL’S VEDIC HISTORIOGRAPHY............................................... 14 PROF. H. BECHERT ON MAHAVAMSA ........................................................................ 16 JAINISM IN CEYLON....................................................................................................... 17 BACK TO WITZEL’S VEDIC HISTORIOGRAPHY.................................................... 19 SRAMANIC JAIN RELIGION........................................................................................... 20 RISHABHA, 1ST TIRTHAMKAR : HIS ANTIQUITY ................................................... 21 ASCETICISM AND RISHABHA’S SRAMANA CULTURE.......................................... 22 YOGA AND JAINISM........................................................................................................ 23 SWASTIKA SIGN AND TIME COMPUTATION.......................................................... 24 RISHABHA AS EPOCH-MAKING JAIN SRAMANIC TIRTHAMKARA IN ITIHASA-PURANA ............................................................................................................ 25 INDIA KNOWN AS BHARATVARSHA AFTER BHARATA SON OF RISHABHA AND REJECTION OF THE THEORY THAT BHARATVARSHA IS KNOWN AFTER DUSHYANTA’S SON........................................................................................... 26 PRE-VEDIC AND PRE-AYAN ORIGINS OF JAINISM............................................... 28 JAINA ANTIQUITY IN VEDAS ....................................................................................... 28 KSATRIYA AND VRATYA TRADITION IN JAINISM .................................................. 29 AHIMSA AND VEDIC CULTURE.................................................................................... 30 AHIMSA AND THE IDEA OF REBIRTH........................................................................ 31 VEGETARIANISM & AHIMSA IN BUDDHISM AND JAINISM................................ 32 JAINISM AND BRAHMANIC-HINDUISM .................................................................... 33 TIRTHAMKARA AND THE CONCEPT OF WORSHIP IN JAINISM ........................ 34 SIVA, RUDRA AND RISHABHDEVA............................................................................. 35 RISHABHA, FIRST TIRTHAMKAR AND RUDRA........................................................ 36 ARE JAIN NASTIKAS ? .................................................................................................... 38 WHY WORSHIP TIRTHAMKARS? ................................................................................. 38 EVOLUTION OF JAIN CONCEPT OF TEMPLE ......................................................... 39 EVOLUTION OF CHAITYA, AYATANA AS AN ABODE OF YAKSHA.................. 39 CHAITYA TREE AND TREE WORSHIP ........................................................................ 40 YAKSHAS IN JAIN TRADITION...................................................................................... 41 BHAVANAM, YAKSA’S ABODE..................................................................................... 41 EARLIEST JINA IMAGE AND JAINA PANTHEON ................................................... 43 AYAGAPATAS AND STUPA AT KANKALI TILA, MATHURA ............................... 44 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF AYAGAPATAS............................................................. 44 STUPAS PRECURSOR OF JAIN TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE .................................. 45 PRE-MAHAVIRA AND BUDDHA STUPAS................................................................... 45 KURAL BY SAINT TIRUVALLUVAR & JAINISM IN SOUTH INDIA ..................... 46 SHANKARACHARYA & JAIN MATHAS....................................................................... 47 © Bal Patil: The Rise, Decline And Renewals Of Sramanic Religious Traditions Within Indic Civilisation 2 .DE Edition 2 online magazine RE-WRITING CHRONOLOGY OF ADI SHANKARACHARYA............................... 49 PATHASHALAS AND JAINA CONTRIBUTION TO LEARNING & EDUCATION O NAMAH SIDDHAM ....................................................................................................... 50 SECULARISM HINDUTVA & JAINISM IN MODERN INDIA .................................. 51 MISREPRESENTATION OF JAINISM .......................................................................... 52 SECULARISM & INDIAN CONSTITUTIONAL PREAMBLE ................................... 52 SUDARSHAN AND HINDU RASHTRA ........................................................................... 54 ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE & SECULARISM .............................................................. 55 JAINS & ARTICLE 25 OF CONSTITUTION.................................................................. 57 MODERN MYTH OF HINDUISM ................................................................................... 58 ART.25 AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM............................................................................ 59 SAVARKAR & HINDUTVA.............................................................................................. 60 HINDUTVA AND MINORITIES....................................................................................... 61 CONSTITUTIONAL SUBTERFUGE AND AMBEDKAR ............................................ 62 SUPREME COURT ON HINDUTVA ............................................................................... 63 MAHAVIRA AND HIS MESSAGE OF AHIMSA ........................................................... 65 MAHAVIRA : MAN & HIS MISSION ............................................................................. 66 MAHAVIRA & HIS ‘ALLEGED’ MEAT-EATING....................................................... 67 MAHAVIRA & BUDDHA.................................................................................................. 68 MAHAVIRA’S TEACHINGS............................................................................................ 69 BHAGVAD GITA AND THEORY OF KARMA.............................................................. 71 A NOTE ON THE HINDU VIEW OF SALVATION...................................................... 71 “THE GITA AS IT WAS” Rediscovering the Original Bhagwadgita............................ 73 FIVE JAIN MAHA VRATAS - GREAT VOWS ............................................................... 74 JAINA PRAYER.................................................................................................................. 75 SYADVADA ANEKANTA : JAIN THEORY OF RELATIVITY OF TRUTH .............. 76 TRANSHUMANISTIC MESSAGE OF JAINISM .......................................................... 77 © Bal Patil: The Rise, Decline And Renewals Of Sramanic Religious Traditions Within Indic Civilisation 3 .DE Edition 2 online magazine JAINISM & BUDDHISM - SHRAMANIC RELIGIONS PRE-ARYAN ROOTS lmost all the scholars agree that Jainism has Pre-Aryan roots in the cultural history of India. As Dr. A. N. Upadhye remarked – “The origins of Jainism go Aback to the pre-historic times. They are to be sought in the fertile valley of Ganga, where they flourished in the past, even before the advent of Aryans with their priestly religion, a society of recluses who laid much stress on individual exertion, on practice of a code of morality and devotion to austerities, as means of attaining religious Summum Bonum.” (Jainism by Colette Caillat, A.N. Upadhye & Bal Patil, Macmillan, 1974) The late Heinrich Zimmer, who is reputed to have been the greatest German Indologist of modern times, in his celebrated posthumous work, The Philosophies of India, conceded that there is truth in the Jain idea that their religion goes back to a remote antiquity, the antiquity in question being that of the pre-Aryan, so called Dravidian period, and that Jainism is the oldest of all Dravidian born philosophies and religions. He also psychologically demonstrated that Jain Yoga originated in pre-Aryan India, and has nothing to do with orthodox Brahmanism which simply appropriated it in later centuries. Noel Retting, another Indologist, writes, "only in Jainism, of all the living religions, do we see a fusion of the primitive with the profound. It has preserved