1. Option C. Discuss the beliefs and practices of the Jains. Why do you think they did not become as numerous or expand as deeply into other parts of Asia as Buddhism did?
Jainism is an ancient religion from India which teach people to take care about all the human beings in the universe. Jains believe that non-injury is the highest religion. Jainism has the 5 great vows non violence, non-attachment to possessions, not lying, not stealing, and sexual restraint. (1. Non violence:Jains must do their best to avoid any intentional hurt to living things. 2. Non-attachment to possessions:Possessions are an obstacle to liberation. 3. Not lying:Truthfulness. Jains must always be honset and conduct business honestly. 4. Not stealing: Jains must not steal, cheat and avoid paying tax. 5.Sexual restraint: Chastity. Jains just can sex only with the person who they are married to.) Besides, Jainism monks and nuns would not have any sexual conduct with anyone in order to be a good sample. Jains believe that all the things have souls even if they are plants, animals. They also considered all the souls’ value are equal and all the souls should be respect and compassion. Jains want to minimize their use of the worlds so that they are all vegetarians and they have fasting normally. There are some different types of fasting. (1. Complete Fasting: never ate any food and water in a period. 2. Partial Fasting: eat less even you are still hunger. 3. Vruti Sankshepa: limit the numbers of the things eaten. 4. Rasa Parityaga: give up the things which you like to eat.) Jains don’t believe any gods like other religions. They think gods couldn’t judge anyone because Jains consider that karma determined the goodness or quality of a being’s life.Jains also believe the gods are still subject to karma and reincarnatio. Therefore, Jains consider gods who lives in the heavenly kingdoms are not gods should be called devas. Jains believe universe is really exist and Jains summarize that there are two classes of things.(1. jivas – living souls. 2.ajivas – non-living objects). Jains follow a disciplined life path in oder to live in a way which will not get any more karma. Jainism has three jewels which are right belief, right knowledge and right conduct. 1. Right belief: to avoid preconceptions and superstitions and make sure you seeing something clearly. 2. Right knowledge: have an correct and enough knowledge of the real universe and a right mental attitude. 3. Right conduct: Obey the Jain ethical rules and avoid doing harm to living things. Jains are divided into two major sects; the Digambara sect and the Svetambara sect. Jainism is dedicated to make everyone be equal. However, the Digambara sect give women an unequal treatment. Digambara Jain consider women could achieve liberation without being reborn as men first. Digambara Jain believe that nakedness is a main factor of the road to liberation but women couldn’t be naked. This is also one reason why Digambara monks are naked without wearing anything. Didmabara Jain think if a woman is naked, the men would have sexual desire. Because of Jainism believe that a perfect soul would not have any desire. In this way, the sexual desire would hinder the man’s progress to liberation. Besides, Digambara Jain thinks if a woman is naked, she will feel shamed. The feeling of shame would hinder the woman’s progress to liberation. The last thing is menstrual blood. Digambara Jain think menstrual blood kills micro-organisms living in the female body. Because Jainism believe non-injury is the highest religion. Digambara Jain think women against the belief of Jainism. The reason why Jains didn’t expand into other parts of Aisa. I think is the caste system and some Indian cultural aspects or maybe monks couldn’t travel through the dessert. I think the most important reason is the caste system. For example, China actually don’t have a a caste system. A man would be a low or upper class not only determined by his family but also his effort. He could try his best to earn money in order to be a upper class even if his family was a low class. His class level was not determined by his name.
2. The origins of Hinduism have been a very controversial topic for many years. Supposedly, a great Harappan civilization was developed at around 2500 B C E in the basin of the Indus river. It was a well-developed urban city. Mohenjo-Daro, another major city, was located only 40 miles away from the Harappa (Ancient India, p.25). Both of these civilizations were built by native Dravidian people, who will eventually leave their native land. However, before that happened, they were able to create technologically advanced and culturally sophisticated civilizations that constituted a home for almost 40.000 people. Dravidians established drainage systems, developed trade and export, utilized standardized weights and measures and even had their own language. Some scholars also argue that Harappan civilization was matriarchal, due to a considerable number of women pictures around the city. (Lecture 05/31, Feres). Sadly, due to the strong influence from Sumer and Egypt, the Indus Valley culture was not able to independently develop. Due to the lack of evidence, it has been very challenging to determine the religious affiliation of the early Indus Valley inhabitants. However, indications of rituals such as lustration (ritual bathing), animal sacrifices as well as excavated Hinduism goddess images suggest that Hinduism religion can be traced back to these early civilizations (Ancient India, p.28). “There are clear continuities of the Indus Valley religion into Hinduism” (Ancient India, p.28). Early Aryan invaders caused a rapid decline in the development of the Indus Valley civilizations between 1800 and 1700 B C E.
The most widely accepted theory about the origins of Hinduism suggests that it was brought by Aryans who arrived from the Central Asia. Aryans spoke the Indo-European language, which later developed into the Vedic Sanskrit and the sacred language of Hinduism. “Arya” means noble, which suggests that Aryans believed in their superiority among the others. ” Aryans were light skinned and did not value agricultural benefits that were provided by the dark-skinned Dravidians. Eventually, Aryans established a caste system, called a “Varna system,” which means color system” (Lecture, 05/31, Feres). In this system, light-skinned Aryans were put at the top, while dark-skinned Dravidians were put at the bottom and dishonored. The top caste of the system were the Priests, who were called the “Brahmins”. Priests knew all of the sacred rituals and were highly respected. The second top caste was constituted by the warriors, called the “Kshatriyas”. Third top caste were the merchants, called the “Vaishyas”. “These three top castes were allowed to wear sacred thread and go through special rights of passage in the society” (Lecture 05/31, Feres). The fourth caste were the commoners or “Sudras” who were usually the darker-skinned Dravidians. These were the four basic casts of the Varna. However, there were also people called “Harijans” or untouchables, who had no cultural significance and were highly disrespected by all other casts (Lecture 05/31, Feres). During the Vedic Age there were a lot of conflicts between the Aryans and their enemies, who were usually either other Aryans or Dravidians. Their political structure was based on the warrior traditions. The Brahmins, or the Priests were given a very special tradition within the society due to their knowledge. They believed that these rituals were necessary in order to maintain a proper functioning of the world. Eventually, they will write these traditions, called the “Vedas”. It is important to analyze Aryan social structure as well as their Sanskrit texts, the Veda in order to understand their cultural origins. The Veda is considered to be a revelation from God. Veda was a foundation for the development of Hinduism (Ancient India, p.35). One of the main religious practices among Vedic Aryans was a shared sacrificial meal, that was shared with “supernatural creatures of devas” (Ancient India, p.40). The Vedic religion is filled with supernatural creatures who represent Gods and have human qualities.
Ancient Indian Societies were very patriarchal. The father was ruling the house. According to the Dharma Shastras, or law books, life is described as a series of logical categories. A male’s life was divided into stages. In youth boy had to be a “student”, then a “householder” and finally an “aging man”, moving away from the material world (National Geographic Documentary, 2014). According to the book of Manu, women were not allowed to hear the religion or read sacred texts and had to be submissive to their husbands. Caste system was passed through the male line. The privilege was always placed on male children, whereas girls were considered to bring shame on the family. There was even a ritual of “Suttee,” or a ritual burning of widows (Lecture 1).
In conclusion its worth mentioning that, even though the Aryan culture was successfully expanding during the Vedic age, eventually religious resistance coming from the people will question the cast system. Gods such as Visnu, Shiva, Krishna and Rama gradually substituted Indra and the rest (National Geographic Documentary, 2014).
