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

Page 77

Pārsvanātha and Vardhamāna Mahāvīra
EVEN as late as the middle of the twentieth century, some eminent historians doubted the historicity of Pārsvanātha, the twenty-third tirthařkara, and held that Vardhamāna Mahāvīra was the founder of Jainism'.1
The historicity of Pārsvanātha
The historicity of Pārsvanātha is now almost universally accepted. Scholars like Hermann Jacobi, Jarl Charpentier,* R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhuri, K.K. Datta, A.M. Ghatage, M.N. Deshpande,? U.P. Shah, J.C. Jain, J.P. Jain, 10 Muni Uttam Kamal Jain, 11 and numerous others 12 hold that Pārsvanātha was a historical person, and some like Rhys Davids, 13
1. A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, 1954, p. 287; IP, p. 69; EWA, VIII, p. 786. 2. ACHI, p. 101. 3. ERE, VII, p. 466. 4. CHI, I, p. 153. 5. AAHI (AI), p. 86. 6. ADIU, p. 411. 7. JAA, I, pp. 16-17. 8. SIJA, p. 40. 9. LDJC, pp. 23-4. 10. JOLR, p. 23. 11. JSS, pp. 9, 12, 13. 12. CUHI, I, pp. 185, 220; JSS, p. 9 fn.1, pp. 12-13 fn.17. 13. JI, p. 81 fn. 3.