Jainism?

I will answer in detail tommorow (it is half 2 in the UK at the moment) but to quickly answer your questions

Yes Jainism is still around. They are about 0.4% of the current Indian population. Some interesting facts about them are that they amongst the wealthiest groups in India and are also India's most litterate comunity. The religion is mainly concentrated in Gujarat where it has had a huge impact on Gujarati life and culture.

Well, 0.22% of the world's population's religion is Jainism. Mainly,  Jainism stresses the spiritual independence and equality of all life with a particular emphasis on non-violence. Like Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism originated in India, where today pretty much almost all of its adherents live. Jainism holds that animals, and even plants can participate to some degree in religious life. In your opinion, might animals posses any form of spirtuality?

Edited by Jay. - 31-Jul-2006 at 22:42

Originally posted by TeldeInduz Even more exact, Hinduism arose in India (North-East), Buddhism in Pakistan (Gandhara), and Jainism isnt certain, and might have been either India or Pakistan (Rajasthan and Gujerat being the main regions where Jainsim is currently practised).

Nonsense yet again from Telde.  Hinduism arose in India. So did Buddhism and Jainism.  Buddha or Siddhartha as he was called before he became "the enlightened one" was born in Eastern India ata place called Lumbini, now part of Nepal. His father was a Hindu Kshatriya.

Mahavira, the founder of Jainism was also born in the house of a Hindu Kshatriya King. He was born a few hundred years before Buddha.

Both these religions embody quite a few concepts of Hinduism.

Great many temples of Buddhists and Jains were destroyed by muslim invaders ( bunch of uncultured people from west Asia who could not appreciate art and architecture of various Hindu/Jain and Buddhist temples).  Jains were able to reconstruct very many of there temples but unfortunately buddhists were not able to do so.

Despite an organized attempt by muslim invaders to destroy Buddhist temples some spectacular temples did survive.  There were elaborate system  of underground  caves which were carved into temples and living quarters of the monks which still survuve today.

-Digs


Edited by Digvijay - 31-Jul-2006 at 23:43

Originally posted by TeldeInduz Originally posted by Digvijay Originally posted by TeldeInduz Even more exact, Hinduism arose in India (North-East), Buddhism in Pakistan (Gandhara), and Jainism isnt certain, and might have been either India or Pakistan (Rajasthan and Gujerat being the main regions where Jainsim is currently practised). Nonsense yet again from Telde.  Hinduism arose in India. So did Buddhism and Jainism.    Could be..Buddhism might have been founded in Bihar (dont think it's known) by a Nepali, I was thinking of the Mahayan branch of Buddhism. However, the Buddhism Canon Scrolls were discovered in Gandhara region, so Gandhara was probably the main region where Buddhism was practised from 200 BC to 1100 AD.

No. You have to start using grey cells now. Figure out:
a) How buddhism spread.
b) Extant of Buddhism.

Once you figure these out: then ponder if there are scrolls found in Japan then would we ascribe rise of Buddhism to Japan?

-Digs

Originally posted by TeldeInduz It's more or less known that Buddhism did not take off in the region of India. It did in Gandhara. You know what the Buddhist Canon is?

Buddha preached, trained his disciples in India for more then three decades, and these bhikshus (monks) spread the religion to India/China/Japan/Korea/Lanka/West Asia and some how one should believe you?

Look there are limits of being and writing stupid things.  You have crossed them.

If you are a young person who lacks ability to do basic research then I can point you to some sources, else  you are wasting everyone's time.

-Digs

Originally posted by Jay. TeleInduz, I really don't think Buddhism arose in Pakistan, but then again I may be wrong. Do you happen to have any sources on this?

Buddha himself was a Bihari, Buddhism spread into Pakistan and Afghanistan early and was the dominant religion of the whole region before Islam started to trickle south from Arab areas of Iran and Central Asia.