Jainism in a Global Perspective - Collection of Jain papers of 1993 Parliament of World Religions, Chicago

SR No.: 014010
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Sagarmal Jain, Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 402
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 23 MB

Page 226

Jainism: The Oldest Religion
District of Gujarat. Since the great war of Mahābhārata is a historical event and Kṛṣṇa is historical personage, his cousin brother Nemi too occupies a place in this historical picture. There is also an inscriptional evidence to prove the historicity of Neminatha. Dr. Fuherer also declared on the basis of Mathura Jaina antiquities that Neminatha was an historical personage (vide Epigraphia Indica, I, 389 and II, 208-210). Further, we find Nemi images of the Indo-scythian period bearing inscriptions mentioning his name. These and many other inscriptions corrobrate the historicity of 22nd Tirthankara Neminatha.
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Among the remaining 21 Tirthankaras of the Jaina tradition, there are several references found from different literary sources to the first Tirthankara Rṣabha. We have also find mention of the names of some other Tirthankaras in Hindu and Buddhist literature. Thus the tradition of twenty four Tirthankaras is firmly established among the Jainas and what is really remarkable is that this finds confirmation from non-Jaina sources, especially Buddhist and Hindu sources.
5. Jaina Tradition and Buddhism
As Mahavira was the senior contemporary to Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, it is natural that in the Buddhist literature, there should be several references of a personal nature to Mahāvīra. It is, however, very significant to note that in Buddhist books, Mahavira is always described as nigantha Nataputta (Nirgrantha Jñātṛputra), i.e. the naked ascetic of the Jñatṛ clan and never as the founder of Jainism. Further, in the Buddhist literature, Jainism is not shown as a new religion but is referred to as an ancient religion. There are ample references in Buddhist books to the Jaina ascetics, to the worship of Arhatas in Jaina Caityas or temples and to the caturyama-dharma (i.e. fourfold religion) of 23rd Tirthankara Pārsvanätha.
Moreover, it is very pertinent to find that the Buddhist literature refers to the Jaina tradition of Tirthankaras and specifically mentions the names of Jaina Tirthankaras like Rṣabhadeva, Padmaprabha, Candraprabha, Puspadanta, Vimalanatha, Dharmanatha and Neminatha. The Dharmottara-pradīpa, the well-known Buddhist book mentions Rṣabhadeva along with the name of Mahāvīra or Vardhamana as an Apta or Tirthankara. The Dhammika-sutta of the Anguttara-nikāya speaks of