World of Tiryañcas : The Unique Jaina Perspective (With Reference to Modern Discoveries)

World of Tiryañcas: The Unique Jaina Perspective (With Reference to Modern Discoveries)

Introduction:

Dr. Padmanabha Jaini's paper viz. "Indian Perspectives on the Spirituality of Animals", is the inspiration of this paper. Dr. Jaini has taken into consideration the. Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist views about the spiritual progress in animals mainly on the basis of few mythological stories prevalent in these traditions. When I tried to find the word tiryañca in the scriptorium of Skt., Pali and Prkt. dictionaries, I came to know that the word tiryañca is repeatedly used and discussed in Jaina texts with various aspects, than Hindus and Buddhists. The typical thought-model of "14 guṇasthānsa'''' is of course applied to tiryañca but apart from this, Jainas have given a more deep and serious thought to the world of tiryañcas.

Informative and research-based films on insects, birds and animals are regularly shown on T.V.channels like National Geographic, Discovery, Fox History & Entertainment and specially Animal Planet. When we see these films with the Jaina background of tiryañca world, new thoughts arise in our mind. In this paper, an effort is made to co-relate the ancient Indian thoughts and particularly Jaina thoughts with the modern views.

full article as pdf:

Click on image to download the PDF.