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PREFACE
Although it should not be necessary to prove that Jainism is the oldest and independent religion of India, yet on account of many reasons it has become essential to prove today. During the last two centuries, the European scholars carried on research work on Indian thought and culture in accordance with their own standpoints. The commencement of Vikrama Era, which was an ordinary thing for Indians, was a matter of great controversy for those scholars. They could not arrive at unanimous conclusion even in this respect. In the same controversial atmosphere, the history of our national culture and religion was written incompletely and unsystematically. Historical works of this sort were prescribed in our educational centres viz. colleges and universities. Unfortunately, we were taught to think about our cultural and religious history in the light of foreign interpretations. Consequently, we find even today in the primary books of history written in the Indian languages that Jainism was founded by Lord Mahāyira, Some books indicate that it was founded by Lord Pārsvanātha and Lord Mahāyira simply reorganised it. Some say that Jainism is nothing more than a revolt against Vedic culture. Really speaking it was neither founded by Lord Pārsvanātha, nor by Mahāvīra nor it stood merely as a revolt agaiost the Vedic culture. Jainism is an absolutely independent religion and is older than Vedic culture itself. All these facts have been proved in this booklet by Shri Jyoti Prasad Jain, M, A., LL.B. He has given a lot of sound arguments. We are very much thankful to him for allowing this booklet to be
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