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श्रमण-संस्कृति Buddhism with the republics of the period. The important principle is the emphasis on ethics as the basis of politics.
What strikes one in Buddhism and Jainism is the utter contempt for the normal activities of life. They rejected property, sex, power, all of which according to them, lead to the plight of soul. They may be natural to human beings, but we aught to forego them in order to gain a higher satisfaction. Sex, more than anything else is the supreme manifestation of our unbridled nature. They rejected the lokayata view of pleasure and its attendant materialistic doctrine. For them, living for the body becomes a sign of corruption, and living for the mind a brahmanical vanity, what was important was the cultivation of the soul or the psyche through the practice of moral principles.
References 1. Quoted in : “Jain Thought and Philosophy", Illustrated weekly
of India 15 February 1991, Pg. -19. 2. Uttradhyan: trans, Muni Nathmal, Ladnu, Jain Viswa Bharti,
18-14, 15-16. 3. Ibid, 14-10. 4. Prof G. C. Pandey : Foundation of Indian Culture: Spiritual
Vision and Symbolic Forms Ancient India (New Delhi, Book's and book's 1984) Pg.-69
