History of Jainism

SR No.: 006741
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: U K Sharma
Publisher: D K Print World
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 304
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

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Jaina Tirthamkaras and antiquity of Jainism
oceans of years ago.399 The Jaina tradition also holds that Rşabha lived for two million pürva (great) years as a prince and six million three thousand purva years as a king.400 According to the second school of thought, Jainism was founded by Pārsvanātha, the twenty-third tīrthamkara, 'who lived in the ninth-eighth century Bc'.401 According to the third school of thought, Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, the twenty-fourth tīrthamkara, 'who lived in the sixth century BC°,402 was the founder of Jainism,403 and this view persists in some quarters 404
An overwhelming majority of historians doubt the historicity of the first twenty-two tīrthamkaras. Their arguments are as follows:
1. There is no historical evidence regarding the existence of the first
twenty-two tīrthamkaras;405 they, therefore, belong to mythology
rather than to history.406 2. The number of Jaina tīrthamkaras is not original;407 it is canonically
the same as given by the Hindus and Buddhists for their respective
incarnations.408 3. The first twenty-two tīrthařkaras were legendary figures who were
probably introduced to balance the number of the jinas with the number of the Buddhas.409
399. OISJ, p. 7. 400. HJM, p. 57. 401. JAA, 1, p. 16; JOLR, p. 14. 402. GD, p. 108; JSAI, pp. 32 ff. 403. CHI, I, p. 153; AI (M), p. 167;IP, p. 69; EWA, VIII, p. 786; A.L. Basham, The Wonder that
was India, 1954, p. 287. 404. JOLR, Preface, i. 405. JSS, p. 9; LDJC, p. 19. 406. ERE, VII, p. 466. 407. JI, p. 36. 408. Ibid.; OISJ, p. 8. 409. LDJC, p. 19.
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