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
make a mention of some other jinas also. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa makes a mention of Sumati,438 the fifth Jaina tīrthamkara, and calls him the son of Bharata,439 who was the son of Rṣabha.440 The Bhāgavata Purana adds that this Sumati will be 'irreligiously worshipped by some infidels as a divinity'.441 There is some similarity in the Brāhmaṇical and Jaina accounts of Sumati.442 But it is also important to note that according to the Jaina texts, tīrthamkara Sumati was the son of Megha.443
The names of Ajita, the second tirthankara, and Supārsva, the seventh tīrthamkara, also seem to find mention in the Vedas.444 According to some scholars K.P. Jain,445 Hira Lal Jain,446 Jyoti Prasad Jain,47 N.N. Basu,448 Fuhrer,449 L.D. Barnett, 450 H.S. Bhattacharya451 and P. Banerjee 452 Neminatha or Ariṣṭanemi, the twenty-second tirthamkara, was a historical person. P. Banerji writes,
Though nothing can be said definitely about the historicity of the early tīrthamkaras, yet there can hardly be any doubt that
438. Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 5, 15; Viṣṇu Purana, op. cit., p. 246 and notes. 439. Ibid., 5, 15; Ibid., p. 246 and notes.
440. Visnu Purana, op. cit., pp. 245-6.
441. Ibid., p. 246 and notes; HJM, p. 39.
442. HJM, p. 39.
443. TSPC, II, pp. 277-81; JI, p. 58; JPV, p. 99.
444. JOLR, p. 29.
445. HJM, p. 59 fn 6.
446. HP, Editorial.
447. JOLR, p. 23.
448. Ibid., p. 20 fn 3. 449.
Ibid. fn 4.
450. Ibid. fn 5.
451. Ibid., p. 21 fn 2.
452.
P. Banerjee, Early Indian Religions, p. 147, cited in A.K. Mittal, Political and Cultural History of India from Indus Valley Civilisation to 1206 AD, 1992, p. 155 fn 2.
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