2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Basic study on the view of death and life in Jainism: focusing on the rules of the ritual of fasting unto death
| Project/Area Number |
16K16699
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Chinese philosophy/Indian philosophy/Buddhist studies
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| Research Institution | Okayama University of Science (2018)
Otani University (2016-2017) |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | インド哲学 / 死生学 / ジャイナ教 / 在家信者 / 断食死 / シュラーヴァカ・アーチャーラ文献 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
In the code of conduct of Jain lay persons, fasting unto death, in which they voluntarily refuse to eat and die, is discussed as a ritual which lay persons should practice. The practice of this fasting unto death has been criticized as "be equivalent to a suicide" since old days. The present researcher's main subject was to examine the response from Jainism to such criticism in detail based on the description of the primary text. The focus of the research was the definition of fasting unto death in the texts called "Sravakacara texts" which discussed the code of conduct of Jain lay persons. As a research result, 4 papers and 4 annotated Japanese translations of related texts are published in research journals, etc.
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| Free Research Field |
中国哲学・印度哲学・仏教学
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
本研究の成果は，インド哲学や仏教学だけでなく，死生学，生命倫理などの分野にも新たな知見を提供することができると考えられる．本研究により，宗教的な教義にもとづくものとはいえ，ジャイナ教の断食死が今日で言うところの尊厳死の先駆的なものであることが明らかとなった．2,000年以上の歴史を持つ伝統宗教の見解という，いわば人類の大きな知的遺産の解明は，現代人が直面している問題を解決するうえでも大いに参考になると考えられる．
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