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(XXI)
to save the situation, and preached the Truth and the Law to one and all without disturbing the constitution of the social structure prevailing at the time. A general religious up-heaval ensued; but so engrained was the soulless ritualism in the constitution of the society that two hundred years after the Vuvan of Parshwanath, Mahabir Swami appeard as the 24th Reformer, and gave a re-statement of Jainism later on taking the form of the philosophy of pragmatism, to stem the tide of degredation, and save the soul of the nation from runing into narrow old grooves and gutters of ritualism and mysticism (tantricisn). Goutam Buddha also followed suit from another direction. He represented the Indian school of spiritual democracy, and preached the principles of what they now call 'Romantic Improvement' in modern philosophy which resulted in the formulaton of the subjective idealism, in the breaking of the social fetters, and in the curbing of the power of the Brahmans to enforce Vedic ritualism upon the people. Such is the history of the religious transition through which India had to pass uptill the time of Mahavir and Goutam Buddha who are
