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Bühler's summary
opinions.
10
EARLY HISTORY. Early Faith of Asoka, inclines to the same belief.' The views of the various scholars and their respective positions in regard to this matter have thus been ably set forth by Bühler."
“ Apart from the ill-supported supposition of Colebrooke, Stevenson and Thomas, according to which Buddha was a disloyal disciple of the founder of the Jainas, there is the view held by H. H. Wilson, A. Weber, and Lassen, and Çenerally accepted till twenty-five years ago, that the Jainas are an old sect of the Buddhists. This was baserl, on the one hand, upon the resemblance of the Jaina doctrines, writings, and traditions to those of the Buddhists, on the other, on the fact that the canonical works of the Jainas shew a more modern dialect than those of the Buddhists, and that authentic historical proofs of their early existence are wanting. I was myself formerly persuaded of the correctness of this view and even thought I recognised the Jainas in the Buddhist school of the Sammatīya. On a more particular examination of Jaina literature, to which I was forced on account of the collection undertaken for the English Government in the seventies, I found that the Jainas had changed their name and were always, in more ancient times, called Nigrantha or Nigantha. The observation that the Buddhists recognise the Nigantha and relate of their head and founder, that he was a rival
1 The Journal of the Royal Jainas will ever remain a standAsiatic Society, Vol. IX, (New ard authority on the early Series) Art 8.
history of North Indian Jainism. · Bühler's Indian Sect of the
