Jain Journal 1972 10

SR No.: 520028
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1972
Total Pages: 55
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

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JAIN JOURNAL
“The Nirgranthas are never referred to by the Buddhists as being a new sect, nor is their reputed founder Nataputta spoken of as their founder."26_-E. W. Hopkins.
"One such great reformer, Tirthankara Parsva, flourished in the 9th-8th century B. C.... The early history of India is as much Jainistic as it is of those who profess the Vedas. For the present, the modern critics have accepted the historicity of Tirthankara Parsva."27_J. C. Vidyalankara.
“There can no longer be any doubt that Parsvanatha was a historical personage."28_A Guerinot.
"Thus admittedly, Jainism as a system of religious and ethical views and likewise as a community of Jainas was formed long before Mahavira Jeena became the head of the community....23rd Tirthankara (Parsvanatha or Parsva) was born, lived and preached in Kasi (Benaras)."29 -Mrs. N. R. Guseva.
"Jaina creed had sprung into existence long before Gautama Buddha's time, Vardhamana Mahavira was not its founder, but a reformer of what Parsva had taught, whom tradition credibly maintains to have lived 250 years before him.”30_Walther Schubring.
There are also some indications of the influence of Parsva's teachings having reached Central Asia and even Greece in those early times. In the eighties of the last century Prof. Beal was reported to have told the Royal Society that there undoubtedly was such a faith in Central Asia long before Buddhism was promulgated by Sakya Muni Gautama, and also that Sir Henry Rawlinson had, in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (September, 1885) and in his Central Asia (p. 246), called attention to the New Vihār monastery of Balkh and
26 Religion of India, p. 283. 2? Bharatiya Itihas-ki Roop-rekha, Vol i, pp. 343-349.
Essai de Bibliographiea Jainica, Intro. 28 Jainism (translated from Russian into English by Y.S. Redkar), pp. 42, 44. 30 The Doctrine of the Jainas (translated from German by Wolfgang
Beurlen), p. 5.