Jainism and Saivism

[Guest guest]

Dear List Members,

 

I am searching for a book that confirms to the description below, sent to me

by a friend. I would be obliged if someone could identify it for me --

 

"An Ivy League American scholar had published a book in the early 1990s where

he explored the parallels and symmetries of Saivism and Jainism.He asserted

that the two schools of thought/practice complemented each other perfectly

and added that both traditions needed to be re-examined in lightof this

common paradigm. "

 

Thanks

 

Vishal Agarwal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, VAgarwalV@c... wrote:

 

> I am searching for a book that confirms to the description below,

>sent to me by a friend. I would be obliged if someone could identify

>it for me

>

> "An Ivy League American scholar had published a book in the early

>1990s where he explored the parallels and symmetries of Saivism and

>Jainism.He asserted that the two schools of thought/practice

>complemented each other perfectly and added that both traditions

>needed to be re-examined in lightof this common paradigm. "

 

This may be Richard H. Davis. See his article in,

Open boundaries : Jain communities and culture in Indian history.

Edited by John E. Cort. Albany, NY : State University of

New York Press, 1998. The borrowing of Jaina ideas and rituals

in Saiva aagamas is talked about. While tamil saivism polemically

cast Jains, a small minority, in the role of "the Other" and

put 1000s of them on stakes ('kazu'), Saiva sivachariyar rituals

have parts borrowed from Jains themselves! Esp. the nirmAlyam leavings

at the Chandesa Nayanar in all Siva temples etc.

 

Note that Jains were in the forefront to write

Tamil grammars for 2000+ years. Early schools

were conducted by them, so much so that

paLLi means both a school and monk's quarters in tamil.

Most early tamil brahmi inscriptions are pithy

donative records to the jain monks from 2nd century

BC onwards. The reason for scarcity of Buddhist

inscriptions before 3rd century AD is perhaps,

the hInayAna emphasized the Buddha's words and myths

in Paali which the commoners could not understand.

In the creation of mahAyAna with theism injected,

Tamils would have played a significant part in

Ceylon and South. GaNDavyUha sUtram (sculpted even in

borobudUr = vihAra + pudUr, putUr in tamil means

'new habitat') and the Avalohita statues found

in the South India and Ceylon hint at this.

The purging of Mahayana in Lanka is known in history as

vaitulya heresy.

 

See also Indira Visvanathan Peterson's article on Jains as

portrayed in Tevaram. For this article, I sent

Kaasivaasi CentinAtaiyar's "zrI cIkAzip peruvAzvin2 jiivakaaruNya

maaTci", 1909, Madurai (this is mentioned in the Cort volume). In his

book, Kaasivaasi C. Iyer valorizes St. jnAnasambandhar's eradication

of Jainism and Buddhism in the South by putting them on stakes etc

and exhorts Shaivaites to do the same with Christian missionary

efforts. KC was the primary disciple of Arumuka Naavalar of Jaffna

who worked for a Bishop in his early years, then turned to

oppose Hindus getting converted. Read,

Young, Richard Fox and S. Jebanesan

The Bible trembled : the Hindu-Christian controversies of

nineteenth-century Ceylon

Vienna : Sammlung De Nobili, c 1995.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan