________________
and fire, the well-wishing king will teach them the art of cooking under fire.
After the lapse of the dubsama ara of the utsarpiņi kāla, there will be sixty-three excellent personages viz. 24 Future Tirthankaras, 12 Cakravartins, 9 Vasudevas, 9 Prati-vasudevas, and 9 Bala-devas eto.
These were some of the "forc-tellings given by Srama na Bhagavan Mahāvira a short time before his Nirvāṇa in 527 B. O.
Early History of Jainism
“The year 527 B. O, the date of Mahavira's Nirvana is a land-mark in Indian history. We may say that an accurate knowledge of Indian History begins with the date of Mahāvfra's Nirvāņa. Mahāvira was an elder contemporary of Gautama Buddha. He was also the contemporary and a relation of Srègika Bimbisāra who was the king of Magadha with the capital at Rājagriha.
People whose knowledge of Indion history is derived from old Sinclair's School History of India have got extremely errone ous notions about Jainism and its relationship to the other faiths in India. Sinclair, because of inadequate knowledge, gave currency to untruths and errors such as " Jainism is an offshoot of Hinduism and Buddhism and that Mahāvira was the founder of Jaidism." It is extremely unfortunate that even after accurate knowledge is obtained by oriental scholars of the West and made available to the public, these erroneous views are prevalent among the educated Iudians even now. We have only to state that Mahāvira was the last and the 24th of a series of Tirthankaras who were supposed
* These are described in detail in Triếasthi salākā Purusa Caritra (Sarga 10); in Dipāvalıka Kalpa; in Loka Prakása; Upadesa Prāsāda; Sangrahaņi etc.
From "Contribution of Jainism to World Culture" Jaina Antiquary Deo. 1943. by Prof. Chakravarti.
-
----
-
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
