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CHAPTER VI.
The examination and refutation of Dr. Bhandarkar's third argument based on the sacred languages of the two religions.
Now we shall go to Dr. Bhandarkar's third and last argument, viz. that Prakrit, the sacred language of the Jains was formed in the beginning of the Christian era, while that of the Buddhists was originally Pâli. Dr. Bhandarkar, in common with some European Scholars like Barth, seems to hold that the Jain doctrines as gathered from their earliest written works are quite different in many points from the doctrines taught by Mahavira, that in the long time which is said to have elapsed between the teaching of those doctrines and the redaction of their canon, the Siddhanta, many of the original doctrines must have been forgotten or neglected, and their place supplied by many dogmas, which if not hostile were at least foreign to primitive Jainism. In ans
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
