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us somethivg quite different. According to it, the Jaina religion is eternal and there were several reformers of this religion who are identical with the twenty-four Tirthańkaras.
This Jaina tradition is a striking one; and has certainly a concrete fact behind itself; for I have been satisfied already several times that no Indian tradition is without a back-ground of reality. What is the back-ground of this striking tradition, is very difficult to say now, for, it is only now that I have started the investigations on this matter.
But one remark in the article of Prof. H. Jacobi (in the Enoyclopoedia of Religion and Ethis by Hastings, 1908) seems to show me the right direotion, if not even the solution of the problem itsell, Jacobi mentions in this topic that perhaps Jainism took some views from older animistic religions. And this opinion of Jacobi is not unimportant, as far as it relates to the Jaina belief that, not only animals, but also plants, and even the minerals, have an animated substratum of life "Jiva".
Therefore, I am now inclined to believe and I shall try presently to prove it scientifically that Jainism is a very very old religion for a scholar can hardly suppose eternity of any religion, the roots of which reach back to very remote times of the pre-Aryan races in India, which took from the Aryan religion everything that was the best or at least better than its own ideas, and which has developed itself parallelly along side of the Brāhvjanic forms of the Aryan religion. This supposition does not alter anything in my final conclusions which will be same whether we adhere to the second mentioned opinion or to this my own opinion about Jainism, which I mention only for the purpose of showing my personal point of view in this matter.
Jainism as a religion of the masses can be dealt with only in its final form iz after the reform of Mabarira or better in the present form as it is taught hy both the most important schonls of Jainas viz the Svetambaras and the Diganıbaras. And onlġ this form can be considerent from the point of view of the
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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 |