The present volume is a detailed study of the history of Some Aspects of the Jainas with an introductory note on the emergence of the Parivrajaka sect in general and the Jaina Parivrajaka in particular in the context of the profound turmoil that has taken place in Indian religious life and thought in the sixth-fifth centuries BC. It highlights the emergence of new trends of thought and belief represented by diverse sects and schools which clashed with the orthodox and conservative patterns of behaviour. Adequate attention has been given for obtaining an objective picture of contemporary religious schools and their respective views and tenets: It is a modest effort to identify the dimension of groups organised around religious ideas of both the theists and the atheists. Apart from introducing the tirthankaras with teachings and tenets: nature and characteristic features of the Jaina monastic order-manuals for the Jaina works-Jaina canonical texts and the distribution of this faith in different regions, in the light of historical perspective, the book has been further enriched by the incorporation of an Appendix on the Ajivikas to show that in spite of their having ideological proximity with the Jainas, the general philosophy of the Ajivikas, i.e., the doctrine of niyati (fate), has nothing to do with Jainism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pranabananda Jash
Professor Pranabananda Jash (b. 1943) received his under-graduate and post-graduate degrees in Ancient Indian History and culture, from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketana (India). Author of a number of research papers on various aspects of Indian and South-East Asian History and Culture, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for this thesis entitled Saivism from the early Pauranic and Epigraphical Sources in 1971, and later in 1984, earned the highest academic degree of the University, Doctor of Literature for his outstanding research work on the History and Evolution of Vaisnavism in Eastern India (1982). Some of his other publications are – History of Saivism (1974); Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India (1989); History of the Parivrajakas: Sankaracarya (1991). More over, he has edited several volumes, noteworthy among them are – Society and Religion in Ancient India (Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya Commemoration Volume, 1984); The Emperor and the Subordinate Rulers (1982); The Mother Goddess Worship (1987); Indology and Science: A Hermeneutical Coalition (1989); A Peep into Nineteenth Century Poetry (1989). National Integration: Vision of a Poet (1995); National Integration: Problems in Perspective (1995). Professor Jash has completed a couple of research projects sponsored by the UGC and the University of Visva Bharati. He has occasions to deliver lectures at a number of Indian and foreign universities and/or academic institutions. He has been teaching in the Department of Ancient Indian History, culture and Archaeology, Visva Bharati, since 1971.
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