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The Oldest Living Religion Sankhya and Yoga pbilosophies which have the next claim to be considered orthodox, i.e. to be in keeping with the Vedas for even the Vedānta Sūtra allows them the title of Smộties. But the atomic theory makes an integral part of the Vaišesika and it is acknowledged by the Nyāya, two Brābmanical philosopbies which have originated by secular scholars (Panditas) rather than by divine or religious men. Among the heterodox, it has been adopted by the Jainas and also the Ājivikas. We place the Jainas first, because they seem to have worked out their system from the most primitive notions about matter”l. The same is equally true about the Karma doctrine of the Jainas, which is based on their own atomic theory, of their apimistic beliefs and hero worship.2
Prof. G. Satyanarayan Murti wrote in 1916, that “Jainism seems to be an indigenous product of ancient schools of Indian thought. Whatever the early savants of European fame have said to the contrary, it is to be noted that Jainism with all the glory of its Dharma and plenitude of its literature, both secular and religious has been handed down from a boary antiquity. Jainism bas a history of its own, a history on most of the obscure parts of which fresh light is being thrown almost every year owing to the patient researches of many scholars, both in India and abroad. The sources for the history of Jainism are now many and they have themselves, curiously enough a history of their own, viz. Transaction of the Asiatic Society, and Asiatic Researches-Davis, Knox, Capt. Mahoney, Hodgson, Dr. Buchanon, Prof. Wilson, De la Maine, Dr. Jacobi and Buihler - and a host of other Jaipa historiographers”,3
1 Encyclopaedia of Rel, and Ethics, Vol. II, p. 199-200.
2 On these points we bave already quoted references in previous pages.
3 Jain Gazette, 1916, p. 73,
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