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Prof: HERMANN JACOBI.
1884. *The origin and development of the Jajna sect is a subject on which sone scholars still think it safe to speak with a sceptical caution though this seems little warranted by the present state of the whole questiou; for, a large and ancient literature has been made accessible and furnishes ample materials for the early history of the sect to all who are willing to collect them, Nor is the nature of these materials such as to make us distrust them.
We know that the Sacred Books of the Jainas are old, avo. wedly older than the Sanskrit literature which we are acoustomer to call classical. Regarding their antiquity, many of those books can vie with the oldest books of the Northern Buddhists. As the latter works have been successfully used as materials for the history of Buddha and Buddhism, we can find no reason why we should distrust the sacred books of the Jainas as an authentic source of their history. If they were full of contradictory statements or the dates contained in them would lead to contradictory conclusions, we should be justified in viewing all theories based on such materials with suspicion. But the character of the Jaina literature differs little in this respect alsn from the Buddhistical at least from that of the Northern Buddhists. How is it, then, that so many writers are inclined to accord a different age And origin to the Jaina sect from what can be deduced from their own literature? The obvious reason is the similarity, real, or apparent which European scholars have discovered between Jainism and Buddhism Two sects, which have so much in common, could not, it was thought, have been independent from each other, but one sect must needs have grown out of or branched off from the other. This a priori opinion has prejudiced the discernment
* From Introduction to Jaipa Sutras. Vol. XXII. Acāranga Sūtra & Kalpa Sūtra-Sacred Books of the East Vol. XXII Oxford. 1884.
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| SR No. | 008001 |
| Book Title | Shraman Bhagvana Mahavira Part 1 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Ratnaprabhvijay, D P Thaker |
| Publisher | Parimal Publication |
| Publication Year | 1989 |
| Total Pages | 650 |
| Language | English, Sanskrit |
| Classification | Book_English, Biography, History, & Religion |
| File Size | 15 MB |