This installment is largely about another important matter as it relates to our family and its surroundings. It is the influence of religion and related matters.  As you are aware our family has been Jain and in particular Swetambara Murtipujak Jain sect.  Besides the basic principles and philosophy of religion, the day to day life was much affected by the legends and mythology's that had been developed hundreds of years ago.  Dogma and rituals based upon these legends and myths were a large part of the daily routine.

All the religions in the world have developed their own mythologies and legends over the years.  Since Jainism and Hinduism are among the oldest existing religions, they have more of these then others.  Both Hinduism and Jainism were born in the same area and have coexisted for almost 3000 years. They have influenced each other over the years more than other religions.

The biggest problem is many of the myths and legends are so old that they have become parts of people’s lives.  Thus fiction is perceived as facts; legends are believed to be true stories.  Myths are considered true and historic events.  One of the biggest myths among Jains is that the first Thirthankar (there are twenty-four), Rushabhdev, was born millions of years ago and lived for thousands of years.  As you know, human history is only a few thousand years old, but even today many Jains honestly and sincerely believe in this myth. My parents and grandparents were no exceptions to this. When we grew up, we were raised to believe this to be true and told about it repeatedly.

There are many more of these in Jainism as well as in Hinduism.  To understand this we have to know the origin of both religions and the historical and geographical background of the land in which they were born, India. When I say India, I do not mean the present day country of India, but also Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Island of Sri Lanka.  Some people refer to it as South Asia and some call it the Indian Subcontinent.  I am referring to this area.

At the south end of the land is the Indian Ocean which extends all the way south to Antarctica.  From the southern tip of the land the ocean extends to the northwest as the Arabian Sea and to the northeast as the Bay of Bengal. The eastern mountain range in the north is about 6000 feet high (beginning almost touching the bay) and extends northward to the boundary of Tibet (now China), Burma and India.  This area receives heavy rain fall, more than 100 inches in most areas and in some places as high as 500 inches. (The maximum recorded rainfall is 900 inches.)  It is full of thick tropical forest making it extremely difficult to traverse.  

At this northern point, the Brahmputra River enters from Tibet into the state of Assam in India and the Himalayas begin, stretching almost 1800 miles in a northwesterly direction.  Most of the mountain chain is more than 18000 feet high with many peaks measuring more then 25000 thousand feet.  As you are aware, these are the tallest mountains in the world.  Once again, this area is almost impassable.  At its northwest end the Sindhu (Indus) River flows between the Himalayas and another giant mountain call Karakoram.  Further west, the Hindu Kush Mountains lies in a north-south direction and even further south, the Sulaiman Mountains goes southwest almost to the Arabian Sea.

  

Between the Hindu Kush and Sulaiman Mountains is the pass known as the Khyber Pass.  The mountains in the west hardly receive any rain and only some snow.  It is arid and rugged land.  Thus the area bounded by these formidable features is more or less isolated from the rest of the Asian continent to the north and hence the area south is called the subcontinent.  The Himalayas prevent the cold Siberian wind from entering the subcontinent and although the mountains receive lots of snow and get very cold, most of India remains warm.  During the summer, winds blow from the ocean towards the north and with it brings the rains to most of the country, but once again the Himalayas prevent the rains from going any further north.  Any left over clouds turn into snow in the mountains. North of the mountains, Tibet hardly gets any precipitation.

This physical isolation created by the mountains in the north and the oceans on its three other sides had largely insulated the people of the subcontinent from outside influence.  Nonetheless, its own civilization and religious beliefs have influenced   others cultures, particularly towards the east and Southeast Asia.  Most of the history up until the time of Buddha is blurred since it is mixed with myths.  The basic problem was of how to transfer knowledge from one generation to other. Most ancient civilizations inscribe their achievement in stone carvings either in caves or on monuments. The Aryans, being nomads, never stayed in one place for long and moved with their tribes in search of pastures for their herds and as a result relied upon story telling. They developed an elaborate language and called it Sanskrit (the language of civilized or cultured people). They still had one difficulty. It is difficult to remember long, elaborate stories or rules and regulations by simply hearing or trying to by telling or tell it to others. They developed a brilliant solution. If you sing or hear someone singing the same thing a few times it is much easier to remember.  Thus the Vedas (and later on all literature in Sanskrit) were in the form of poems.  Even the epics, the Mahabharata (three times longer than the bible) and the Ramayana were written in the form of poems. People would sing in groups or even alone and in that way were able to remember and pass on knowledge from generation to generation. Even after written language was established, this tradition of writing all things in the form of poems continued for a long time. One of the greatest outcomes (besides the transfer of knowledge) was a great tradition of music that was developed as well as grammar being perfected to very high degree. The disadvantage to this system was that history was often changed or modified to suit the tune or rhythm and that poets tend to exaggerate for dramatic effect.

          As far as written language is concerned, long before the Aryans, the Indus Civilization developed a writing system, much of which is to date not deciphered. Some historians think that ultimately the Aryans learned their writing from the survivors of the ancient Indus people and that the script of all North Indian languages is derived from this ancient script.

         The Vedic Aryans had also developed another system, the life cycle. According to them, human life lasted 100 years and was divided in four parts:

1. 1.From birth to 25 years of age was called Brahmacharyashram and was meant for study and the learning of trades, crafts or a profession (all of which was hereditary)
   

2. 2.From 25 to 50 years of age was called Grusthashram and was meant for getting married, raising family and caring on ones trade, craft or profession.
   

3. 3.From 50 to 75 years of age was called Vanaprasthashram and was meant for slowly retiring from active life and for passing time in religious duties and functions.
   

4. 4.From 75 to 100 years of age (or until the end of life) was called Sanyasashram and was meant to be spent completely retired and living as a hermit in the forest or mountains with all time spent in prayer and religious activity.
   

5. 
   

Of course, these periods of life were for the three higher casts while Sudra's were supposed to work throughout their life as servants and labors. Women too were excluded from these phases of life and were supposed to take care of their family for the entirety of their life.

         This was the Vedic tradition. Along with the Vedic tradition a parallel tradition called the Shraman tradition also existed. The Shramans (ascetic's) did not accept the Vedas authority and did not accept the Bhramin superiority. They also opposed the Vedic tradition of scarifying animals to please their gods. The Shramans believed the universe had been there forever, would continue to be there forever and refused to believe in the “creator” god. They also opposed the four caste divisions of people and considered all human beings (including women) as equal. They believed that by meditation and controlling one’s mind the human being can achieve perfection and control their destiny.  They practiced yoga as a part of this. Some historians believe that some preliminary forms of yoga were developed by the Indus Valley Civilization and the Shraman Aryans developed it further. Both the Vedic and the Shramanic tradition existed side by side, but the Shramans were in the minority and the Vedic tradition dominated. Ultimately some 3000 years ago, the Shramanic tradition would give rise to the Jain religion and later about 2500 years ago it will give rise to the Buddhist religion.

Although the Vedic Aryans and Shramans had difficulty going south across the Vindhya mountains, they had no problem going north.  Although the north was mountainous and cold it did not have any diseases, wild animals or tribes to obstruct the incursion.  Most probably the Shramans and the Vanaprasth Aryans (let us call them the thinking Ancients) went along the rivers and found the giant mountain chain they named the Himalayas. (“him” means snow or ice and “alaya” means a mansion or a palace –thus it means a palace of the ice.)  Finally, they also found that except for three of the big rivers (Sindhu, Sutlej and Brahmputra which came from the north face) all rivers sprung from the south face of the Himalayas.  In the west, all rivers merge into the Sindhu and all rivers in the east merge into the Ganga.  Most of the rivers were navigable and become their main source of transportation.  The land in the east was fertile and agriculture was plentiful.   Hilly and less fertile areas were used as pastureland for their herds.  Their staple foods included milk and milk products.  As a result cows become an important source of food.  Male cows (bullocks) were also used for farming and transport right up to and including the 20th century.  Cows become integral to daily life and the killing of cows was prohibited, in fact cows became sacred.  Rivers too became sacred, with the Ganga being the most sacred of all.

 

When they discovered that the three rivers (Sindhu, Satlej and Brahmputra) all started from almost the same area on the north face of the mountain, they also discovered an isolated summit and a lake in that same place.  They called the summit Kailash (referred to as Mount Meru by the Jains) and the lake was called Mansarovar.  Soon thereafter these two sites also became sacred and Kailash was considered to be the center of the earth and the home of god.  Hindu legend later had Kailash to also be the home of Shiva.  Jain legend will call the mountain Meru and held it to be the place where Rushabdev (the first Thirthankar) reached nirvana.  Other Jain mythology will say that whenever a Thirthankar was born (24 in total) that the angels took them to Meru and give them their first bath on Mount Meru.  The Jain ritual of Snatra Puja is essentially a reenactment of the bathing on Meru.  When we were young our father would perform this ritual and we had to join him and help give this bath to the Thirthankars.

The thinking Ancients were very observant and determined a lot about the sky and began to develop the science of astronomy.  They found that some of the stars were different then others and they called them graha (planets).  The planets they observed were Mangal (Mars), Budh (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus) and Shani (Saturn).  They also considered Pruthvi (Earth), Chandra (Moon) and Surya (Sun) to be graha as well.  This made up a total of eight grahas.  The eclipse was not clearly understood and it was believed that another graha called Rahu with an odd movement pattern was responsible for this.  Thus, according to the thinking Ancients there were nine planets (Nav Grahas).  They also discovered twelve rashis (zodiacs) and their movements.  The rotational movements (with their consideration that the earth was at the center) of all the grahas and rashis were fairly accurately calculated.  The old Indian calendar used by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists was based upon these calculations.  They also discovered that there was one star in the sky that was always in the same spot, they called it Dhruv (North Pole) and the big dipper was called Saptrishi (Seven Sages).  The Brahmins will later develop the Navagraha Pujas and develop astrology based on the rashis.  Our ancestors were amazingly adept at turning observation and discovery into myths and legends and incorporating those into religious rituals.