What is Jainism

SR No.: 006714
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain
Total Pages: 210
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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THE ORIGIN OF JAINISM
IT would have afforded no little amusement to Buddha, if he could have foreseen what some of the moderns have said about the relationship between Jainism and the faith he himself founded about 2,500 years ago. This is what Dr. Gour says of this relationship, in 'para 331 of his Hindu Code:
"Jainism claims to be the precursor of Buddhism, but it is only its child. It is in reality a compromise between Buddhism and Hinduism, an adaptation made by those who could not receive the new faith, but who nevertheless found refuge in a creed, which, while retaining its traditional connection with Hinduism, has borrowed from Buddhism its doctrines and religious practice."
For his authority Dr. Gour relies upon Mountstuart Elphinstone, who said :---
The Jainas appear to have originated in the sixth or seventh century of our era; to have become conspicuous in the eighth or ninth century, got to the highest prosperity in the eleventh, and declined after the twelfth."
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But today no one subscribes to this view, and it is frankly conceded by European research that it is erroneous (see the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII, p. 465). That being so, I need not discuss it in detail or multiply authorities against it. I shall merely content myself by quoting Buddha himself, whose authority should be conclusive on the subject. In one of his famous discourses, he said:
'There are, brethren, certain recluses (Achelkas, Ajivikas, Niganthas, etc.), who thus preach and believe: Whatsoever an individual experiences, whether it be happy, or painful, or neutral feeling, all has been caused by previous actions. And thus from the cancelling of old actions by tapas, and by abstaining from doing new
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