Cathars of France By Amar Salgia
There was another
religious sect that existed in Western Europe until about 750 years ago, which
was perhaps more similar to Jainism than any other religion -- Indian or
otherwise -- that has ever existed.
The religion of the Cathars, also known as the Albigensianists (for their early
geographical situation in and around the city of Albi, France) also were also
divided into a lay class and a monastic class, the latter of which were termed
the "perfecti". They were strict vegetarians and held numerous
philosophical views, pertaining to the nature of the self,
the understanding of other living beings, and the means and purpose to
salvation, which parallel no other system of thought but that of the Jain
tradition.
<I shall try to present the Albigensianist beliefs and practices, in some depth,
in the future, though sources pertaining to their worldview, lifestyle and
practices are scarce and mostly secondary.>
The fate of the Cathars and their beautiful way of life set in the middle of
Europe is an unfortunate one. The very first of the Crusades, which were
sanctified by the Roman Catholic Church, completely wiped out the Cathars over a
period of thirty years. They were clearly not Christians, and refused to
accept biblical, let alone papal authority. However, their philosophical views
and asceticism did influence, though rather ironically, the Troubador poets who
corrupted their doctrines into "The Art of Courtly Love" (which is the title of
an important book -- paralleling, in some respects, the "Kama Sutra" among
the Hindus -- by a certain famous Troubador).
The few European orientalists who both studied and respected the Jain tradition
enough to perceive its uniqueness, took notice of the glaring similarities
between the Cathars of Europe and the the Jains of India. Both groups pose
themselves as brazen anomalies to the perceptive scholar, since their doctrines
and lifestyle seem to differ quite
radically from those of their respective surrounding populations. The
theory that the Cathars had actually come into contact with Jains, which was
first advanced by European scholars, therefore needs to be taken seriously, and
be thoroughly pursued.
Given the evidence, if no connection between the Jains and Cathars can be
established, then the resultant documentation of the striking similarities
between them can single-handedly break the patronizing Indological
hypothesis that Jain renunciation, Jain nonviolence, and Jain soteriology came
not from actual Shramana renunciants, but were instead born of primitive
anxieties that India's geography and climate supposedly force its inhabitants to
maintain.
And, if some historical
connection between the Jains and Cathars can be drawn and defended, it shall
strenghten and further factualize the traditional conception of Jainism's grand
universality: the view that true Jainism can, and in fact has been
systematically practiced outside of Indian cultures and societies.
It will be a momentous and exciting endeavor for us Western Jains to collect and
scrutinize the surviving historical/literary evidences, in a systematic
and disciplined manner, to identify the numerous historical
linkages and perhaps establish the plausibility of some Jain influences on both
Hellenistic and later non-Christian, European religion and thought. Modern
Jain scholarship has long suspected it.