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IDEALISM AND REALISM
147
in rank to Indra who is the chief of all happy beings in Swargam. There are sixteen stages in this heaven.
"Mārima, Putalima, and other Śaktis are Ventarus, living on Mount Meru; but they are of malevolent disposition. Below Mahāmêru and earth is Bhuvana or hell, the residence of the spirits of wicked men who are called Räksasas and Asuras; and although endowed with great power they are miserable. Bhuvana is divided into ten places of punishment in proportion to the crimes performed by their inhabitants ..... etc. etc. etc. " 70
Here, indeed, is a khicari of all faiths and beliefs: both Aryan and Dravidian, Hindu as well as Jaina. Mārima and Putalima who were worshipped with bloody sacrifices have here entered the Jaina pantheon, evidently divested of all their ferocious and blood-thirsty character. In the Dharwār District, Jainas of all classes are said to believe in sorcerers, witches, sooth-sayers, and consult them in cases of sickness or other calamities. ? Similarly, Thurston speaks of the worship of Bhūtas or devils by the Jainas of South Kanara. They set apart a room for them in their houses, called the Paddle; but instead of sacrifices they offer to them metal images of fowls, goats, pigs, etc. 72 As a matter of fact such a metamorphesis in the practical aspects of Jaina belief was inevitable. For, in the words of Jacobi, "generally speaking, the notions of the Jainas about demons, ghosts, ete. were very much the same as those of other Hindus; but the position of the Superhuman beings was, in many respects, altered by the efforts of the Jainas to introduce systematic order into the Mythological conceptions current at the time when their religious teachings were reduced to a definite torm." 73
70 Ibid., pp. 76-3. 71 Cf. Dhārwar, Bom. Gaz. XXII, p. 118. 7: Thurston, The Castes and Tribes of Southern India II, p. 427; cf,
Sturrock, South Kanara I, p. 189. 73 Jacobi, Demons and Spirits, E. R. E. IV, p. 608; Ibid. Cosmography
pp. 160-61
| SR No. | 011062 |
| Book Title | Jainism and Karnataka Culture |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | S R Sharma |
| Publisher | Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar |
| Publication Year | 1940 |
| Total Pages | 263 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 9 MB |