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AN EPITOME OF JAINISM purification of our hearts and minds and establish the tirtha or the order. According to the Jains, the first Tirthankara 'Rishava Deva' of the present era, gave to the world a systematic exposition of Truth in all its aspects, both secular and spiritual. He also laid down rules of conduct for the proper guidance of the church as well as of the laity. Rishava Deva is also mentioned in the Hindu Scripture, the 'Srimat Bhagvať', as the second in the list of kings, who, towards the end of his life, abandoned the world and went about as a naked ascetic and rose from manhood to divinity by meditation. "Parshwanatha', the twenty-third, and 'Mahavira', the twentyfourth, were not founders but they were merely reformers like other Tirthankars in different ages. On the face of such overwhelming evi. dences as can be collated from pages of high antiquity, there cannot be any doubt as to the existence of Mahavira or Parshwatha as historical personages. M. Guerinot, in the Introduction to his learned Essay on Jain Bibliography, indicates the important points of difference between the life of Mahavira and that of Buddha.
