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FROM A LECTURE AT DHULTA ON 21-8-21.
By Dr. O. Pertold m. A. PH, . 21st August 1921
Dr. O., Pertold M A. PH D * says.-" And now let us have a look at Jainism from the European scholarly point of view, which may seem perhaps dry and without much enthusiasm to some body, but which is I assure you, strictly scientific and without prejudice.
Jainism is generally dealt with as an offspring of religious currents started in India in the VIII th century B. C. as an opp. osition against the Brāhmanic formalism, which at those times, led often to forms not always worthy to be called religion at all. This opinion is, as I said, almost general among the European scholars and with some reservations it is accepted even by the Jainas themselve. And just these reservations of which the roots can be traced very far in the tradition, have brought me to the idea, that our European opinion of Jainism is a wrong one.
To be better understood, I must set all the opinions together, ape after another. The older European opinion is that Mahāvira is the founder of the Jaina religion being himself an older contemporary of Buddha. Some of the scholars even consider Mahāyfra's religion to be a sest of Buddhism. This opinion, already a long time ago, proved to be wrong.
The current opinion of the present European scholars is that the Jaina religion had been already started by Parśva-natha, Mabāvira being only its reformer. But the Jaina tradition teaches
* In a brooklet named "The Place and Importance of Jainism in the Comparative Science of Religions” published by Yasho vijaya Jain Grantha-Mālā, Bhavnagar India.
§ The twenty-third Tirthankara of the Jainas.
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