A Concise History of Science in India c5.s8.1

c5.s8.1

Unlike Buddhism which developed into a world religion, Jainism remained confined within the geographical boundaries of India. Jainism also showed stronger affinities to Brahmanism in many respects. One result of this has been that the Jainas like the Brāhmaṇas, exhibited considerable interest in secular learning and sciences and made notable contributions to philosophy, grammar, lexicography, science of politics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine and other technical matters considered important in their times. This interest is reflected in their oldest canonical literature as well as in the production of a large number of technical literature. The Jainas have a special claim in the development of many of the Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada in the south and Gujarati, Hindi and Mārvarī in the north.a