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EARLY HISTORY
eminent scholars, considerable caution has to be exercised. At the time when they wrote and formulated their opinions, epigraphy was in its infancy. Since then, new facts have been unearthed : the science of epigraphy itself has progressed by leaps and bounds : theories once considered indisputable have to be considerably modified. The vernaculars of the couriry, again, presented a serious obstacle to European scho. Cars, who, it must be admitted, are not all Beschis and Popes, in arriving at a correct estimate of some aspects of South Indian histery. Specially true is the statement with reference to the history and influence of the Jains, materials for which lie deeply embedded in the vernaculars of the country-Tamil, Telugu and Canarese.
In spite of the fact that a good deal of information is available about the Jains, scholars are still sceptical and speak with caution of the origin of the Jain sect. Almost all oriental scholars, with a few exceptions, had maintained, and some of them still continue to maintain, that Jainism was an offshoot of Buddhism. Certain coincidences in minute details between the lives of the Buddha and Mahāvīra led scholars to believe that Jain records were untrustworthy and that the Jain sect had no early and separate existence. In fact a rich crop of literature has grown round this knotty point and the whole of the introduction of the Acharanga Sutras by Hermann Jacobi has been written with a view to remove the deep-rooted prejudice in the minds of European
Origin of Jainism.
