Jaina Gazette 1927

SR No.: 034889
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J L Jaini, Ajitprasad
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1927
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 87

52
THE JAINA GAZETTE
speaker and also of the hearers from such undesirable causes of falsehood and error as passion, prejudice, bigotry and the like. The mere contemplation of Divinity in thought has the tendency to banish these evil traits from the mind, and with them are also banished private hatreds and feuds of all description. The Great Divinity to whom salutation was offered by me this day is known as Adi Nath Bhagwan, which means the first Worshipful Lord, He is better known as Rishabha Deva who flourished very very far back in the traditional period. You are aware that modern research has shown that Jainism was flourishing over 2,700 years ago, which is practically the limit of the historical age, at least in India. Beyond this period nothing whatever is known to history, How much further than 2,700 years back did Jainism extend in the past cannot be known historically to-day. But one thing is clear that that period merely takes us back to the time of the 23rd Tirthankara whose name was Parasva Nath, after whom the great Jaina place of Pilgrimage in Behar in India came to be known as the Pareshnath Hill. Between Rishabha Deva and Parasva Nath intervened 21 other Tirthankaras, whose lives are described in the Jaina Tradition, which is preserved in Scriptures termed Puranas. So far as the historicity of the first Tirthankara is concerned, I do not think there can be any doubt about it, for he is not only recognized in Jainism, and referred to in Buddhism, but actually accepted as the founder of the Jaina and Religion in the Hindu Books. This is the most valuable confirmation of the Jaina tradition, and as Stevenson, a great European Scholar, observes cannot be disregarded. The important point is that the Hindus do not know of any other explanation of the rise of Jainism, nor of any founder of Jainism other than Rishabha Deva, whom the Jainas name in this connection. If Jainism had been founded by any other and a much later personage, it is impossible that the Hindus would be ignorant of the fact, and would be actually endorsing the Jaina claim instead of refuting it. In my opinion this consideration is quite sufficient to show the historicity of the first Tirthamkara conclusively. How far back in time gone by did
Rishabha Deva flourish can be roughly guessed in the light of the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat