THIRUKKURAL - A JAINA WORK

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In another section devoted to vegetarian food, the author distinctly condemns the Bauddha principle of purchasing meat from the butcher. Buddhists who offer lip service to the doctrine of Ahimsa console themselves by saying that they are not to kill with their own hands but may purchase meat from slaughter house. The author of the Kural in unmistakable terms points out that the butcher's trade thrives only because of the demand for meat. Butcher's interest is merely to make money and hence he adopts a particular trade determined by the principle of 'supply and demand'. Therefore the responsibility of killing animals for food is mainly on your head and not upon the butcher's. When there is such an open condemnation of animal sacrifice sanctioned by vedic ritualism and the Buddhistic practice of eating meat by a convenient interpretation of the Ahimsa doctrine, it is clear by a process of elimination that the only religion that conforms to the principles enunciated in the book is the religion of Ahimsa as upheld by the Jains. It is maintained by a well known Tamil scholar that the work is a faithful translation of the Dharmasastra by Bodhayana. Though very many Sanskrit words are found in this work and that from among the traditional doctrines some are also treated therein, still it would not be accurate to maintain that it is merely an echo of what appeared in the Sanskrit literature because many of these doctrines are re-interpreted and re-emphasised in the light of Ahimsa doctrine. It is enough to mention only two points. This Bodhayana Dharma Sastra, since it is based upon the traditional Varnasrama, keeps to the traditional four castes and their duties. According to this conception of Dharma, cultivation of the land is left to the last class of Sudras and would certainly be infra dig for the upper class to have anything to do with agriculture. The author of Kural, on the other hand placed agriculture first among the professions. For he says, "living par excellence is living by tilling the land and every other mode of life is parasitical and hence next to that of the tiller of the soil". It is too much to swallow that such a doctrine is borrowed from Sanskrit Dharma Sastras. Another interesting fact mentioned in Dharma Sastras is the mode of entertaining guests by the householders. Such an entertainment is always associated with killing a fat calf; the chapter on guests in Bodhayana Dharmasastra gives a list of animals that ought to be killed for the purpose of entertaining guests. This is necessary part of Dharma and violation of it will entail curse from the guests in the firm belief of those who accept Vedic ritualism as religion. A cursory glance at the corresponding chapter in the Kural will convince any reader that Dharma here means quite a different thing from what it means in the Dharma Sastras of the Hindus. Hence we have to reject this suggestion that the work represents merely a translation of the Dharma Sastras for the benefit of the Tamil reading people.

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