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peculiar only to the Jainas, the same being the case with most of the other ideas mentioned above,62 In fact, these beliefs are distinctively peculiar to Jainism and have little in common with the Buddhist or the Brahmanical religions. And, since these ideas were being professed in those far off lands at a time when Mahavira and the Buddha were only just beginning their careers, in all probability they owed their propagation to Pārsva, if to no earlier Tirthankara.
One of the foremost exponents and, in his time, the greatest leader of the movement for the revival of Śramaņa Dharma that marked the later Vedic Age of Indian History, as Parsva was, he commanded the love, esteem, and veneration of his contemporaries. "He was obviously of a winsome nature", as Dr. Schubring avers, "for he bears the constant title of 'Puriṣādāniya' which seems to be the oldest precursor of the modern occasional titles of Lokamāṇya, Deśabandhu, Mahatman, etc.63 Even Mahavira, whenever he alluded to Parsva, is said to have used the honorific epithet, Puriṣādāniya (meaning the noblest of men) for him.
62 63
[ October 71, January 72, October 72 ]
Ibid.; Jain, J. P., op. cit. pp, 19-20.
Schubring, op. cit., p. 29.
Bloomfield's The Life of the Jaina Saviour Parsvanatha may also be read with interest.
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