Jainism in North India

SR No.: 011067
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chimanlal J Shah
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1932
Total Pages: 66
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 119

there is no other on for the purposes indian history of the JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA and who had in his lifetime become a Jaina Sadhut, was ruling at Kusasthala, and whose daughter Prabhavati was married to Parsva.1 It is difficult to say as to how far these facts can be taken as historically true. The trouble is, for all thus, that we have got to wholly rely on whatever data the Jainas put before us, because there is no other historical monument or record which can be taken into consideration for the purposes of this history. But the same difficulty arises with the whole of Indian history of the days prior to Alexander the Great, and sometimes even later than that. Fortunately, as already remarked, looking to the great historical worth and the literary value attributed to the Jaina canonical and other literature of the centuries before the Christian era by some of the eminent scholars and historians of our day, it will not be too much to say that with the Buddhist and Hindu annals Jaina annals too have their place, and a due consideration should be extended to them also. In the words of Dr Jacobi, " The origin and development of the Jaina sect is a subject on which some scholars still think it safe to speak with a sceptical caution, though this seems little warranted by the present state of the whole question; 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, avowedly older than the Sanskrit literature which we are accustomed to call classical. Regarding their antiquity, many of those books can vie with the oldest books of the northern Buddhists As the latter books have successively been 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 FATEUCO 1974 retariant, i foratura: u m a formi. उपादन परिव्रज्या सुसाधुगुरुसत्रिधी। राज्ये भवरवर्मणाः / मनः प्रसेनजिवाम // तस्य HTC HH, RO IVE. I Heath Hemacandra, Trishashti-Salald, Parca LX, vv 58, 59, 61, 62, 68, 69, 210, pp 198, 203 80