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two persons contemporaries, examining and comparing some of the chief incidents of their lives, the similarity of some of which led the European scholars for a long time to believe that Buddha and Mahavira were one and the same personage, figuring under different names. After showing Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha, we shall show that before Mahavira became recognised as a prophet and saint, before he began to organise his order of ascetics, there existed an order known as the Nigantas—the followers of Parshvanath, the Jain prophet immediately preceding Mahavira— who were very analogous to Mahavira's followers, and who in a body joined him, acknowledging him as their prophet. In other words we shall try to show that Mahavira, the contemporary of Buddha was not the founder of the Jain religion, but only its reformer, that is to say Jainism existed in India, before Buddha's time. After examining critically and answering the arguments advanced by some Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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