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Comparison and Contrast Between Jainism and Buddhism
Mahavira and Buddha were contemporaries and there was much in common between them. It is
because of the similarities between the two that some scholars think that Jainism owes it origin to
Buddhism or Jainism is the oldest branch of Buddhism. Both of them were the products of intellectual,
spiritual and social forces of their age which arose as a challenge to the existing Brahmanical order.
Both were started by Kshatriya class who appealed and gave Social status to the Vaishya and Sudra
castes. They emerged in eastern India, a place which had retained some feature of pre- Aryan culture.
Their common place of origin and their newly acquired support from the economically prosperous
Vaishyas and socially oppressed Sudras all together helped in the publicity of their principles. Their
attack on caste system, rituals and sacrifices, supremacy of the Brahmanas led the people to acquire
new dimension to deal with problems of life and living.
Both possessed Aryan cultural background and were inspired by Upanishads especially the Samkhya
– Yoga, Atheism, pessimism about human life being full of misery, doctrines of transmigration of
soul and theory of Karma and the belief in dualism about spirit and matter are all essence of Samkhya
Yoga which Jainism and Buddhism adopted with some modifications.
Both lived a renunciant life from a similar age (Gautama, 29; Vardhamāna 30) and spent a number of
years of strict ascetic practice – up to six in the case of Gautama, at the end of which he rejected
extreme asceticism, twelve in the case of Vardhamāna, who continued to advocate such practices.
Both then attained some form of enlightenment and went on to teach others and led monastic and lay
followers. Unlike Gautama, Vardhamāna died aged 72, after a period of voluntary starvation.
Doctrinally, Buddhism and Jainism have much in common. Both postulate countless past rebirths,
with no creator of either the world or the round of rebirths. The human world goes through vast
cycles of improvement and decline, and is currently in a period of decline. Rebirths exist at many
levels and a being’s karma (action) determines how it is reborn. Liberation is by the self-effort of the
individual, under the guidance of their tradition. Beings have freedom of action, and are not puppets
of fate. Both traditions rejected the efficacy of the Vedic fire sacrifice and emphasize, in their
different ways, non-violence to all forms of life. Both seek liberation from the round of rebirths,
which is seen as entailing repeated suffering. It is clear that Buddhists and Jains were taking part in a
similar quest, and language used by each may have been alluded to, commented on, critiqued and
reinterpreted by the other.
1. The Concept of Nirvana
Both religious believe in the concept of Nirvana or liberation of bound beings. However there is a
different between them in respect of who achieves Nirvana.
According to Jainism souls are eternal entities which get entangled in the causative phenomena and
become subject to the law of Karma. In their liberated state the souls are conscious, eternal, pure
and divine. But in their bound state they become subject to the cycle of births and death. Death is
a mere separation of the soul from the body and the birth is its entry into a new physical body as
determined by its previous actions. A soul can free itself from the suffering and limitations of
physical life by leading a pure and austere life according to the precepts taught by the Tirthankaras.
In some extreme cases it can also be achieve by destroying the body itself through austerities and
self-mortification. After liberation, the Jiva or soul continues to remain as an individual soul, but in
the highest state of purity and enlightenment.
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Liberation is seen to come by freeing the jīva from bondage by removing its encrustation of karma,
seen as a kind of subtle matter. The methods of doing so are two-fold:
1. wearing out the results of previous karma by austerities (tapas) such as fasting, pulling out the hair
(at ordination) and going unwashed (washing also harms vermin and even water); penances are done
for bad actions, and some monks and even very pious laity practice fasting to death when old;
2. to avoid the generation of new karmic matter, self-restraint, total nonviolence to any form of life,
and vegetarianism. Such good conduct generates some karmic results, but unlike bad karma, these
spontaneously destroy themselves.
Buddhism does not believe in the existence of eternal souls. So it approaches the subject of
liberation purely from a physical and mental perspective. What becomes liberated during nirvana is
the individual personality that comes into existence on account of the aggregations of elements and
consciousness. This individual personality is neither eternal nor divine. It is an impermanent and
unstable entity, which is subject to karma and the cycle of births and deaths.
According to Jainism, salvation is possible only after death while according to Buddhism it is
possible during one’s own life if one is able to detach oneself from the worldly existence. While
Jainism describes nirvana as freedom from body, Buddhism describes it as an end of the self and
breaking the cycle of birth and death by detriment from the worldly attractions. Buddhism was more
practical in approach towards the problems of the time. It was more flexible to adopt changes into its
fold with changing circumstances but Jainism was more rigid.
The Buddha saw the Jain theory of karma as somewhat mechanical and inflexible. Buddhist texts
attribute to Jainism a kind of karmic fatalism: “Whatever this individual experiences, whether
pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, all this is due to previous action. Thus, by burning up, making an end
to ancient actions, by non doing of new actions, there is no overflowing into the future”(Majjhima
Nikāya 2.214). Buddhism, on the other hand, sees past karma as only one of several causes of present
pleasure or pain (Saṃyutta Nikāya 4.230–1). The austerities Jainism advocates are seen in Buddhism
as ineffective and extreme.
2. Ethical views
Buddhist and Jain ethics share an emphasis on avoiding the killing of any living being, though in
Jainism, while intentional harm is worse, even unintentional harm is to be constantly guarded against,
so as to avoid accumulating the karma of killing. Just as Buddhism recruited well amongst merchants,
so did Jainism, particularly because trading had a lower likelihood of causing death to any kind of
jīva than many other modes of livelihood.
Jain monks, like Buddhist ones, live by alms, but the Jain ones have preserved a basically wandering
life, also found in early Buddhism, except during the Indian rainy season. In developing a more
settled renunciant life-style, ordered by rules of community, the Buddhists can be seen to have
invented monastic life.
Buddhism and Jainism both emphasize constant awareness and equanimity. They share meditations
on the impurity of the body and the impermanence and unsatisfactoriness of the world, though
Jainism emphasizes these more. A common Jain meditation is ‘abandoning the body’, a form of
standing meditation.
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Buddhism emphasized love to all beings which is a positive virtue and more affirmative concept of
Ahimsa than the concept of non-injury to all beings as emphasized by Jainism.
As far as
non-violence is concerned, Jainism laid lot of emphasis on it and believed in extremities but
Buddhism is liberal in approach and even permitted eating of flesh to its followers where it is a
traditional diet of the people. Jainism advised practice of strict asceticism to attain nirvana while
Buddhism preached the middle path to attain salvation. While Jainism thought women and men
householders could not fulfill the eligibility to attain salvation, Buddhism believed both could attain
and were eligible for the nirvana.
3.
Theory of Knowledge
Both Buddhism and Jainism are critical of dogmatic or one-sided views, both comparing these to the
views of blind men quarrelling over the nature of an elephant after only ever having felt a small part
of it, then over-generalising from this. The Buddhist use of this simile is at Udāna 67–9.
In time, the Jains developed a theory of knowledge including anekānta-vāda: the doctrine of
many-sidedness, and syād-vāda: the doctrine that all knowledge is relative. Knowledge is relative,
partial and limited for the unliberated jīva, whose natural omniscience is still obscured. This limits the
perceptions and perspectives of the unliberated, so that what they say will only ever be partially true:
any statement about an object will always be relative to a particular context. Jainism thus advocates
meditation on the different aspects of things. For example, free-will and determinism both have
aspects of truth to them, and the jīva is both unchanging (in its inner nature) and changing (in its
qualities).
Here, there are some similarities with the Buddhist idea that the truth is often a ‘middle way’ between
extreme opposing views. The Jain idea that existence is a complex organic whole with many
inter-related, inter-dependent factors can also be related to Buddhist ideas.
Analyse the similarities and differences between Jainism and Buddhism from scholars’ views.
As remarked be Monier Williams, both Buddhism and Jainism have many similarities and
dissimilarities.
"Buddhism and Jainism were not related to each other as parent or child but rather children of common
parent, born at different intervals, though at about the same period of time and marked by distinct
characteristics, though possession a strong family of resemblances". W.W. Hunter writes "Jainism is as
much independent from other sects, specially from Buddhism as can be expected, from any other sect.
Similarities :
(1) The source of both the religion is Vedic religion and both and indebted to Upanishads
(2) Both Gautama Buddha and Mahavira belonged to princely families and not to priestly families.
(3) Both deny the existence of God.
(4) Both denied the authority of the Vedas and the necessity of performing sacrifices and rituals.
(5) Both have accepted the theories of Karma rebirth and Moksha.
(6) Both taught in the language of the common people i.e. Prakrit and not in Sanskrit which was the
language of the priests.
(7) Both of them were opposed to animal sacrifices.
(8) Both of them admitted disciples from all the castes and from both sexes.
(9) Ahimsa is the prominent principle of both the religions.
(10) Both Buddhism and Jainism put stress on right conduct and right knowledge and not on religious
ceremonial and ritual as the way to obtain salvation.
(11) Both, the religions came as a sort of reform of Brahmanism religion.
(12) Both the Religions were later on divided into two sects. Buddhism was divided into Mahayana and
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Hinayana. Jainism was divided into Svetambara and Digambara.
(13) Both had their own three gems or 'Tri Ratna'. Tri Ratnas of Jainism were right philosophy right
knowledge and right character. The Tri-Ratna of Buddhism were Budhha, Dhamma and Sangha.
(14) Both had three main religious texts. Tripitaka, i.e. Vinaypitak, Suttapitaka and Abidhamma pitak
were the three religious texts of Buddhism, where as Anga i.e, Anga, Upanga and Mulgrajitha were
those of the Jainism.
Dissimilarities :
(1) Difference regarding conception Moksha :
According to Buddhism, a man attains Moksha when he ends all the desires and can attain it while
living in the world. But according, to Jainism Moksha is freedom from miseries and can be attained
only after death.
(2) Means of attainment of Moksha:
According to Buddhist Sangha is proper for attainment of Moksha and they avoid self-mortifications
and severe penances. Jainism believes in fasts and severest penances.
(3) Ahimsa :
Though both emphasise the principle of Ahimsa, yet Jainism is more strict in this connection.
(4) Soul:
Buddhists do not believe in the existence of soul whereas Jainism believes the existence of soul in every
living being.
(5) Regarding Conduct:
Buddhism emphasises the eight noble piths whereas Jainism emphasises Tri Ratna.
(6) Language of Religious texts :
Most of the Jain texts are in Sanskrit and Prakrit whereas Buddhist text are in Pali.
(7)Their connection with Hinduism : Jain religion is nearer to Hinduism whereas Buddhism followed
the policy of keeping away from Hinduism.
(8) Caste system :
Jains opposed it but Buddhism opposed and attacked vehemently.
(9) Royal support and patronage :
Buddhism received the royal support and patronage of kings like Ashoka and Kanishka. But Jainism
could never receive strong royal support and Patronage.
(10) Propagation :
Buddhism spread to foreign countries whereas Jainism did not travel outside the boundaries of India.
Conclusion
Though Jainism and Buddhism resembled each other very much, yet there were distinctions
between the two religions. Jainism is a much more ancient religion as compared to Buddhism.
According to Jain tradition, it had twenty four Tirthankars of whom Mahavira was the last. In this
light, Mahavira has been regarded as a reformer of an already existing religion while Buddha is the
originator of a new one.
Sharing thus a common tradition, Buddhism and Jainism utilize many terms in common such as
the following, even when the concepts behind them might be wholly or slightly at variance: dharma,
sagha, arahanta, samsara, karma, ratanatraya, nirvana. Jina has often been used to designate the
Buddha in Buddhist literature. They share the same cosmology and present the identical Hindu gods
of the time as partial to the teachings of each system. Many ethical terms and concepts are held in
common and defined in identical works.
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The Buddhist canonical literature records many instances when Niganthas entered into debate
and discussion with the Buddha. Some of them were really encouraged by Mahavira himself to do
so. Although the subject matter of the debates themselves is recorded only very sketchily and, as
such, an in depth analysis of the points of difference cannot be made, the very fact that these two
contemporary teachers exchanged views and experiences – though not directly – could have had a
significant impact on the evolution of both religious systems. Evidence, however, exists that some
of the more stringent rules of Vinaya came into existence as a result of the more rigid norms of
discipline of the Niganthas (ie. Non injury to plants). Hence, we noted that both had a close
relationship between them.
Thus, there is no doubt that Jainism and Buddhism, born at different intervals, though at about
the same period of time, were marked by distinct characteristics along with possessing strong
resemblances.
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