Latest news with #Jains
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Jainism faced decline, transformation in Karnataka: Prof Devarakonda Reddy
Haveri: Prof Devarakonda Reddy, a renowned historian, explained that Jains were split into two groups, with one in North India and another in South India. While one group migrated to Tamil Nadu and preserved evidence of the Pandya Raja, Karnataka's Jain saints in Shravanabelagola failed to maintain ancient records. Speaking at a two-day national seminar on Tuesday discussing Jain religion, history, archaeology, and culture at KLE's Gudleppa Hallikeri Degree College in Haveri, organised by Hampi Kannada University's department of ancient history and archaeology and Sri Abheraj Baldota Jain Culture Study Centre, he said the 4th century saw Jainism divided into Yapaniya, Kurchaka, and Digambar. North India had Shweta Pantha, as mentioned in the Devagiri inscription. "In the 12th century, Ekanta Ramayya's followers demolished numerous Jain Basadis. The decline of Kalyani Chalukyas post-1160 and subsequent rulers' support for other faiths impacted Jainism significantly," he asserted. Prof Reddy further said that the Chola invasions near Bengaluru and religious conversions contributed to their minority status. Jains and Brahmins led nomadic lives due to their trading practices. The Ekkoti Jinalaya period saw renewed organisation and construction of Basadis. "Following Mahaveer's teachings, they embraced non-violence. Dakshina Kannada's rulers maintained this tradition," he added. Prof Vasudev Badiger highlighted the importance of studying Jainism's origin, growth, and decline. Despite Jain and Buddhist emphasis on non-violence, Shaiva traditions flourished with numerous temples, whilst Jain Basadis remained few. Balligavi served as a regional Jain centre until Ekanta Ramayya's forces destroyed Abalur's Basadis, establishing Shaiva temples instead. The Pattalakeri conflict between Shaivas and Jains resulted in the Jain defeat. "Ekanta Ramayya's supernatural feats require logical examination. Twelfth-century Vachanakaras promoted equality and non-violence, with Bijjala's support. Evidence suggesting Basavanna and Bijjala supported Ekanta Ramayya is incorrect. Veerashaiva differs from Lingayat traditions, with the former associated with Basadi destruction," he strongly pressed. MM Holliyavar, the college principal, emphasised Indian religions' cultural contributions and historical religious competition. Prof Ramesh Nayak, department head, delivered keynote remarks. Photo: Prof Devarakonda Reddy inaugurates the two-day national seminar on Tuesday, at KLE's Gudleppa Hallikeri Degree College in Haveri
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Muslims now, Christians, Jains could be next: Nagina MP seeks minority support
Lucknow: Raking up the new Waqf law, Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) leader Chandrashekhar Azad on Sunday exhorted the Muslim community to strengthen his party so that they are not cheated repeatedly. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Addressing a party convention in Lucknow, Azad said, "Today, in the name of Waqf, it is the Muslims, tomorrow it will be Jains, Christians and others. Learn to speak up. It is a long fight and we will have to learn to fight. I am telling you, Muslim brothers, to not get cheated again and again, and come with me." Azad said that this govt has started workshops on Ramayana and Vedas in schools in the last 10 years. "Is religious publicity in schools right?," he said. On BSP chief Mayawati, Azad said that he respects her, but it is his party which will complete the mission of Kanshiram and BR Ambedkar. On Akash Anand's re-entry in BSP, he said that people have rejected him and it is under compulsion that he is being expelled and then taken back again in the party. The Nagina MP asked his party workers to strengthen the party organization in the state and prepare for 2027 elections. "We need not pick up a gun or sword to change the govt, we only need to vote. Because, if the same continues, Bahujan samaj will not be left with govt jobs in ten years. And when you go to seek justice, you will be hit with shoes. Our dream is to make our community aware and unite it." "The thing with the 'bahujan samaj' is that it can work hard for eight hours but cannot stand united for two hours," he said, adding that he took inspiration from Kanshiram to form a party. "It is not our dream to become MP, MLA or minister, but to take our community towards development," he said, while adding, "Democracy today is dominated by money power, where every work is getting done through money, but he said that he is an example for society, as people in Nagina made him contest elections through donations.
The Print
6 days ago
- Science
- The Print
Sanskrit didn't always drive innovation in ancient India. There are two reasons
Mathematics and geometry in the Indian subcontinent began with the Harappans, who deployed them extensively in urban planning, construction, and hydraulic engineering. Despite various attempts , the Harappan script remains undeciphered. The earliest recorded Indian mathematics, then, comes from the Vedas. Historian David Pingree studied them in his Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature. Vedic priests constructed elaborate altars of mud-brick, in the shape of hawks, herons, chariots and so on. In order to maintain consistent designs, they used geometrical formulae, recorded in the Sulbasutras , appendices of the Yajur Veda dating to c. 500 BCE. From this early period, Indians developed a fascination with trigonometry, including what came to be known as the Pythagorean theorem. On the strength of these claims, various NGOs and politicians have called for Sanskrit learning to be a part of school curricula. But few seem aware of the actual history of science in Sanskrit. As with every scientific tradition across the world, the Sanskritic approach made extraordinary achievements—but it also had severe limitations that took centuries to overcome. To understand this, let's look specifically at the science of astronomy. Earlier this month, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta declared that Sanskrit, ancient India's premier language of power and literature, is 'scientific' and 'the most computer-friendly language', according to 'NASA scientists'. This claim has been doing the rounds for over a decade, sometimes accompanied by pseudoscientific declarations of the achievements of ancient Indians—think flying saucers, cloning, nuclear weapons, and whatnot. In the centuries after, the trajectory of Indian mathematics is somewhat unclear. Around the 4th century BCE, Jains were developing an expansive cosmology, with vast distances and eras of time. Mathematician George Gheverghese Joseph, in The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics, provides some examples. 'A rajju is the distance traveled by a god in six months if he covers 1,00,000 yojanas (a million kilometres) in each blink of his eyes; a palya is the time it will take to empty a cubic vessel of side one yojana filled with the wool of newborn lambs if one strand is removed every century.' This led Jains to develop advanced concepts of infinity: infinite in one or two directions, in area, in time, in space. Europeans, writes Joseph, only came round to this idea in the late 1800s. By the turn of the first millennium CE, the subcontinent's connections to global trade grew denser — a phenomenon we've examined many times in Thinking Medieval. As Indian textiles, spices, animals and other exotica went to the Mediterranean, mathematical and astronomical ideas flowed in the other direction. Sanskrit learning branched out from liturgy into new disciplines, like politics and aesthetics; the earliest Puranas were also compiled, addressing topics of mythology, ritual, history, and cosmology. Sanskrit scientific writings took on a heterogeneous character. Puranic authors insisted that the Earth was a flat disc surrounded by oceans, supported by elephants, turtles and serpents; the planets, stars, Sun and Moon were held to revolve in wheels above. But another set of authors, composing treatises called Siddhantas, absorbed Mediterranean conceptions such as a spherical Earth and elliptical orbits. However, the basis for calculations and geometry was rooted in Indian techniques. This rich exchange is visible in the work of then 23-year-old prodigy Aryabhata in his Aryabhatiya, completed in 499 CE. According to Joseph, the Aryabhatiya introduces the sine and versine (1-cosine) functions, as well as methods for solving quadratic equations. Wielding these techniques, Aryabhata made extremely accurate calculations of the value of pi, of longitude and the position of planets over time. Also read: Medieval Kashmir was confidently multicultural. And dazzled the world with art and ideas Stagnation and innovation Over the next centuries, Sanskrit writers further developed their knowledge of trigonometry, calendrical calculations, and arithmetic. However, there were two major challenges. As Sanskrit was seen as the language of divinity, the main current of Sanskrit knowledge tended to be conservative, resistant to new developments. And rather than developing ideas based on observations, there was a tendency to emphasise theory over observation and experimentation. Arabs, in the 8th and 9th centuries CE, were able to break new ground in optics, hydraulics, and astronomy, both by translating Indian ideas and verifying claims with observations. In India, meanwhile, as late as the 12th century, Siddhanta writers such as Bhaskara II were still rejecting Puranic notions that eclipses were caused by the demon Rahu. Prof Pingree, in his 1978 paper 'Indian Astronomy', argues that medieval Indian astronomers often miscalculated eclipses, and found that despite the confident statements of some Sanskrit treatises, their tables of planetary and star positions could contain errors. There are also precious few descriptions of measuring equipment, such as astrolabes. How could both innovation and stagnation, dogma and genius, coexist in the same literary tradition? Firstly, to be 'learned' by medieval standards was to have an encyclopaedic command of texts, wielding rhetorical, linguistic and logical tools to defend a metaphysical viewpoint taught by one's guru. Mathematical truths were developed out of curiosity, or for better calculations. But the idea of scientific innovation for its own sake, to profitably harness natural principles, did not exist as it does today. The bigger limiting factor on Sanskrit was that it required years of specialised study. This could only happen at elite institutions with endowments of food and capital, such as Brahmin Agraharam settlements or Buddhist mahaviharas. Needless to say, these institutions tended to be open only to elite men, even if they came from distant countries. Though many male-authored Sanskrit texts pay lip service to female and 'lower' caste devotees, barely a handful of actual texts authored by these groups survive across Sanskrit's millennia-long history. They made their own advancements, though poorly recorded. Even as the Sanskrit astronomical tradition floundered, as attested by Arab travellers in the 12th century CE, the star-charts of illiterate South Indian seafarers were the most accurate in the world. Also read: A Sanskrit Bible story was written in Ayodhya. The patron was a Lodi, the poet a Kshatriya New ideas For centuries, Indian mathematics had led the world. But by the 1200s and 1300s, Indian writings seem to have withdrawn from the world stage as advanced Persianate astronomical methods — often based on Indian maths — took over. To be clear, there were still innovations, especially in Kerala, where the Brahmin school of Madhava made substantial innovations in circular and trigonometric functions. Bigger changes, though, came only gradually: the Sanskrit tradition, unfortunately, had become more interested in preserving its prestige and age-old conventions, and only rarely engaged with new, 'alien' (and hence less prestigious) ideas. As Sanskritist Christopher Minkowski writes in 'Astronomers and their Reasons: Working Paper on Jyōtiḥśāstra', members of this school, by the 16th century, were calling for the increased use of observations to verify their methods. Somewhat later, and apparently independently, a Brahmin at the court of Shah Jahan began to translate Persian astronomical treatises into Sanskrit. This was controversial; 17th-century Benares was alight with debates as to whether observation-based Muslim astronomy was acceptable at all. But change was in the air. By 1730, the astronomer-king Sawai Jai Singh II tacitly accepted the importance of observation, setting up large observatories such as the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Attempts to shake up the Sanskritic knowledge system continued under British administrators. In his chapter 'The Pandit as Public Intellectual: The Controversy over Virodha or Inconsistency in the Astronomical Sciences', part of the edited volume The Pandit: Traditional Scholarship in India, Minkowski looks at Lancelot Wilkinson, British Political Agent at the court of Bhopal. Wilkinson commissioned a Brahmin to write a Marathi text on the modern, Copernican system of astronomy. Within two years, it attracted multiple critiques and commentaries from Brahmins bashing it in Marathi, Hindi, English and Sanskrit. The text's author was forced to retract his assertions. But the floodgates were opened: one of Wilkinson's proteges, writes Minkowski, went on to teach both Indian and European astronomy at the Benares Sanskrit college, providing a model of the 'accommodation of science and scientific rationality which still enabled holding on to the context of traditional Sanskrit learning.' Today, Sanskrit is no longer just a language: it has become a stand-in for something bigger, the idea of a perfect, just, advanced ancient Indian society that could be resurrected if only we all spoke it again. Indeed, NGOs such as Samskrita Bharati — at whose event CM Gupta spoke earlier this month — claim that Sanskrit was the mother tongue of all Indians irrespective of caste, class, and religion. (Anthropologist Adi Hastings conducted a detailed study of this organisation in 2008). Since the 1900s, led by ideologues like Dayanand Saraswati, Sanskrit texts like the Vedas have come to be seen as infallible, as already containing all scientific knowledge. Praising Sanskrit orthodoxy and buzzwords seems to have replaced Independent India's proud traditions of serious, independent scientific research open to scholars of all backgrounds. But the fact is that languages are products of history: they are not divine or perfect, but have their brilliances and their flaws. Insisting on the superiority of a single language closes us off from learning from the others: in my view, a mistake our ancestors have already made. The language of science and progress is not English, or Persian, or Greek, or Latin. Nor is it Sanskrit. It is mathematics, it is reason, it is evidence: the common heritage of all humanity. Anirudh Kanisetti is a public historian. He is the author of 'Lords of Earth and Sea: A History of the Chola Empire' and the award-winning 'Lords of the Deccan'. He hosts the Echoes of India and Yuddha podcasts. He tweets @AKanisetti and is on Instagram @anirbuddha. This article is a part of the 'Thinking Medieval' series that takes a deep dive into India's medieval culture, politics, and history. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Time of India
Kailash Mansarovar Yatra: 750 pilgrims selected to begin their divine journey from June 2025
Source : The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is a religious trek to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar in Tibet, holds deep spiritual significance for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Bon followers. After a five-year suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yatra will resume in June 2025, continuing through August. Pilgrims will travel via the Lipulekh (Uttarakhand) and Nathu La (Sikkim) routes. 750 pilgrims selected by computerised lottery out of 5,500 applicants On Wednesday, a computerised lottery selected 750 pilgrims for the highly anticipated Kailash Manasarovar Yatra in Tibet, marking the return of the pilgrimage after nearly five years which is going to start from June and will continue till August 2025. The government selected 750 people out of 5,561 applicants for this journey with the computer-generated draw ensuring that each participant had an equal opportunity to be chosen. The final list of selected pilgrims will now undergo additional checks, including health and documentation verification, before embarking on the pilgrimage in June 2025. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is set to begin from June 2025 According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the pilgrimage is set to begin this year in June and will run through August. The Yatra was suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The journey to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake in Tibet's Autonomous Region holds profound spiritual significance for Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Switch to UnionBank Rewards Card UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Safety steps taken for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra The Ministry of External Affairs as well as the Chinese authorities have taken over the responsibility of overseeing the pilgrimage and safety of the people. The Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh conducted a computerized draw to select participants who had registered selection of people was made through a fair, computer-generated, random and gender-balanced process as stated by the Ministry of External Affairs. The selection included 5,561 registrants which included 4,024 men and 1,537 women out of which 750 individuals were chosen for the Yatra. Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route According to the Ministry of External Affairs, 'a total of 750 selected Yatris, including 2 LOs (liason officers) per batch, will travel in 5 batches of 50 Yatris each via the Lipulekh route, and 10 batches of 50 Yatris each via the Nathu La route. Both routes are now fully motorable, and involve very little trekking,' it said. Government efforts taken for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra During the address, Kirti Vardhan Singh highlighted the government's initiatives to improve accessibility to the Yatra, enhance transparency in the selection process and prioritized safety and welfare of the pilgrims throughout the urged the pilgrims to approach the journey with responsibility, humility, and awareness, encouraging them to care for one another and protect the sacred environment along the way. Also read: Travellers have started paying thousands to escape their phones on vacations; here's the surprising reason behind One step to a healthier you—join Times Health+ Yoga and feel the change
India.com
22-05-2025
- India.com
Only city in the world where eating non-veg is banned... it is not Mathura, Varanasi or Ayodhya, name of city is..., the reason is...
Only city in the world where eating non-veg is banned... it is not Mathura, Varanasi or Ayodhya, name of city is..., the reason is... World's first city to ban non-veg food: India is one of those rare countries where vegetarian food is included in the daily lifestyle of people in every region. Be it the eastern part of West Bengal or the western part of Gujarat, vegetarian food is an important part of people's everyday eating habits. You should not be surprised to know that India has the largest vegetarian population in the world. But it is not that non-vegetarian food is not eaten here. Just like vegetarian food, people here are fond of non-vegetarian food and its business is also growing very fast. According to a report by Statista, by the year 2025, the value of the meat market alone will be US$35.87 billion. But there is also a city in the country where non-vegetarian food is completely banned. Know the name of that city. The first city where non-vegetarian food is banned Palitana city of Bhavnagar district of Gujarat has become the first city in the world to completely ban non-vegetarian food. According to a report in The Times of India, the local government took this decision after continuous protests by more than 200 Jain sadhus in 2014. According to the report, about 200 Jain sadhus went on a hunger strike and demanded the closure of 250 butcher shops. Due to this, the government had to impose a complete ban on non-vegetarian food while respecting the sentiments of the Jain community. However, the ban on non-veg food has not led to a dearth of good food in the city. Palitana is a major Jain pilgrimage site and has a wide variety of vegetarian food items that taste great. The ban on non-veg food in the city has maintained its sanctity and has also led to more vegetarian restaurants coming up for visitors, which has also impacted the economy of the place. Apart from all this, Palitana is a famous city in India, known for its Jain values and cultural history. It is considered one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Jains and is home to the Shatrunjaya Hills, which has more than 800 Jain temples.
