Jainism Embraced Non-Violence In Its Truest Sense – Devdutt Pattanaik

Pune, November 26: “Jainism existed before Buddha. And it has truly embraced Non-Violence, which has been considered to be one the important principle of Indian culture. And the fasting culture that the Jain community follows, is also a symbol of all this,” asserted mythologist and author, Devdutt Pattanaik while he was speaking at the fourth edition of the Deccan Literature Festival happening at the Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir.

Pattanaik was talking in a segment called ‘Decoding the stories of Gods and Saints’ while writer Sudha Menon moderated it. This was the second session on the second day of the two-day literature festival that has brought a range of artists from various forms of art under one roof to celebrate literature in languages like Marathi, Hindi, English and Urdu.

Dignitaries like Monika Singh – Curator, Deccan Literature Festival, Jairam Kulkarni and Manoj Thakur – Directors of the Dakani Adab Foundation, and others were also present on the occasion.

“Jainism’s first Tirthankara – Rishabhdev’s daughters names were ‘Bramhi’ and ‘Sundari.’ But people are unaware of the fact that Bramhi is considered as the mother of scripts and Sundari is related to Mathematics,” added Pattanaik.

“Saraswati is regarded as the symbol of Indian knowledge. Unfortunately, it is neither discussed in our academic curriculum, nor is it considered of importance in our education. We study only to get good jobs, but not in the sense to acquire knowledge,” he expressed.

“If we really want to get to know about the diverse communities in India, we also should listen to their stories. Deccan is geographically important in the mythological literature, but it is hardly mentioned anywhere. The Krishna River, the Vidarbha Region, Agastya Muni, Gautam Rishi – all belong to the Deccan. Therefore, we talk about Mythology, we also understand its history and geography,” he further added.

While sharing about Ahimsa (Non-Violence) Pattanaik said, “Lord Bahubali is like the virtue of Ahimsa in Jainism. But nowadays, Bollywood has glamorized Bahubali into a violent character and that’s why the name ‘Bahubali’ has acquired a different meaning altogether.”