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of a chain of 24 prophets. Moreover the words like "Nirvana" and " Buddha" being common to both systems led to much con fusion. When the priority in time of Jainism has been generally recognised these common traits will acquire for themselves a new significance in the historical evolution of Indian religions.
Whoever urges that Jainism had no priority in time over Buddha's religion has a heavy case to make out. He must show us who the Niganthas were with whom Buddha held such frequent discussions, he must explain the contrasted dissimilarities of the two systems, he must account for the different stages of religious evolution in which we find Buddhism and Jainism. For in metaphysicsTM as in religion the Jain system differs radically from the Buddhist.
The following pages have not been written in any partisan spirit in order to magnify the antiquarian merits of one system over the other. Mere antiquity is but a poor boast
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
