Pune, Nov 27 – Jainism existed before Buddha and it has truly embraced non-violence, which has been considered to be one of important principles of Indian culture, asserted mythologist and author Devdutt Pattanaik on Sunday. Speaking at fourth edition of the Deccan Literature Festival in a segment called ‘Decoding the stories of Gods and Saints’ here on concluding day of the two-day literature festival, he talked about ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) saying, “Lord Bahubali is like the virtue of ‘ahimsa’ in Jainism.
But nowadays, Bollywood has glamorised Bahubali into a violent character and that’s why the name ‘Bahubali’ has acquired a different meaning altogether.” He further said that Jainism’s first ‘tirthankara’ Rishabhdev’s daughters names were ‘Bramhi’ and ‘Sundari’, but people are unaware of the fact that Bramhi is considered as the mother of scripts and Sundari is related to Mathematics. “Saraswati is regarded as the symbol of Indian knowledge.
Unfortunately, it is neither discussed in our academic curriculum, nor is it considered of importance in our education. We study only to get good jobs, but not in the sense to acquire knowledge,” he expressed. “If we really want to get to know about diverse communities in India, we also should listen to their stories,” the mythologist said. Talking about Deccan province, Pattanaik said that Deccan is geographically important in mythological literature, but it is hardly mentioned anywhere. The Krishna river, the Vidarbha region, Agastya Muni, Gautam Rishi — all belonged to the Deccan, he pointed. “Through mythology, we also understand its history and geography,” he added.
