Articles

JAINISM AND BUDDHISM AS ENDURING HISTORICAL STREAMS

M. Carrithers · Published 2013

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ShrutSangam GyanBhandars JainTatvaGyanshala

THE Digambar Jainism of southern and western India and the Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka are among the world's oldest extant religious traditions. They grew ultimately out of the same soil and shared many of the same problems, if not the same solutions. One line I will pursue in this article is a comparison of the two as enduring historical streams. It is a comparison which I have found extraordinarily useful in giving an account of the two religions. The second line arises from the longevity and variation of the two religions. Over their 2500-year history Theravada and Digambar Jainism alone, quite apart from other closely related sects and schisms, bave each given rise to a wealth of diverse and often mutually contradictory attitudes, practices and forms of life. The longevity and the variation can best be understood, I suggest, by regarding the religions as enduring historical streams, a patterned flow of contingencies and aspirations, routines and imaginative responses. Such a treatment is designed to achieve fidelity to the rich historical and ethnographic material of each religion-and, as I suggest in the conclusion, to offer an alternative to some present practices in anthropology. Read more