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or Tirthankaras ( bridgemakers in the figurative sense-that is those by the practice of whose teaching we can cross the ocean of mundane life and reach the perfect state). Hence the Jinas are also called Arhats. In each half-cycle of many millions of years twenty-four Arhats are born, In the present half-cycle the last Arhat, Mahavira was born in 598 B.C. in Kundagrama, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two years and attained Moksha (liberation) in 526 B.C.
When European scholars first began to inve. stigate the history of Jainism, they were struck with the similarities between its ethical code and institutions and those of Buddhism; hence they thought that Jainism must be a branch of Buddhism. But thanks to the labours of Jacobi, Buhler and Leumann, it is now conclusively proved that Jainism is much older than Buddhism. At the advent of the Buddha, the Jain sect had already attained a prominent position in the religious world of India.
In India, as elsewhere, Philosophy became possible when the struggles for existence were followed by its enjoyment when the spirit of conquest gave way to a life of peace and industry. The early effusions of the Aryan people, when
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
