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3
Pārsvanatha and Vardhamana Mahāvīra
EVEN as late as the middle of the twentieth century, some eminent historians doubted the historicity of Pärśvanatha, the twenty-third tirthamkara, and held that 'Vardhamana Mahāvīra was the founder of Jainism'.1
The historicity of Parsvanatha
The historicity of Parsvanatha is now almost universally accepted.2 Scholars like Hermann Jacobi, Jarl Charpentier, R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhuri, K.K. Datta, A.M. Ghatage, M.N. Deshpande, U.P. Shah, J.C. Jain, J.P. Jain,10 Muni Uttam Kamal Jain,11 and numerous others 12 hold that Pārśvanatha was a historical person, and some like Rhys Davids, 13
1. A.L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, 1954, p. 287; IP, p. 69; EWA, VIII, p. 786.
2.
ACHI, p. 101.
3.
ERE, VII, p. 466.
4.
CHI, I, p. 153.
5. AAHI (AI), p. 86.
6.
AOIU, p. 411.
7. JAA, I, pp. 16-17.
8.
SIJA, p. 40.
9.
LDJC, pp. 23-4.
JOLR, p. 23.
10.
11. JSS, pp. 9, 12, 13.
12. CUHI, I, pp. 185, 220; JSS, p. 9 fn. 1, pp. 12-13 fn.17.
13.
JI, p. 81 fn. 3.
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