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After its supremacy in the East in the kingdoms of Magadha, Anga, and Koshal, Jainism flourished both in the South and in the West of India. At various epochs, it was the State Religion in different parts of the country; and the fact is fully corroborated by the old inscriptions, a few of which have only been, of late, brought to light and deciphered by the scholars and antiquarians of the modern time.
Jainism is an original system of thought and culture, quite distinct from and independent of all other Indian philosophical speculations. In the words of Dr. Jacobi, “It (the Jain Philosophy) has, truly speaking, a metaphysical basis of its own, which secured it a distinct position apart from the rival systems, both of the Brahmins and of the Buddhists." And it now goes without saying that the Jains possess a high claim to the preservation of the ancient history of India.
According to the Jains, Truth exists from time eternal; and the world composed of the living and the non-living substances, has been in existence from all eternity, and undergoing an infinite number of variations, produced simply by the physical and superphysical
