SearchBrowseAboutContactDonate
Page Preview
Page 9
Loading...
Download File
Download File
Page Text
________________ Approaches to the Question of the Antiquity of Jainism Thomas McEvilley The Antiquity Hypothesis Unlike Buddha, who is traditionally regarded as more or less his contemporary, Mahavira is not said to have founded a religion, but a to have reformed one. Jain tradition speaks of twenty three teachers who preceded Mahavira in this World Cycle. The twenty first of these (that is, the third back from Mahavira) is dated by the Jains to a period which, as one author notes, "is a good 800,000 years before Pithecanthropus erectus." In any case it seems likely on other grounds than hagiographic tradition that Jainism is a good deal older than the age of the Buddha. There are, in fact, elements in it which can be traced back to the Indus Valley culture, though perhaps by way of intermediary groups. It has even been suggested, and not implausibly in terms of the slight evidence available, that "those Jaina images of Parsvanatha (Mahavira's predecessor) that represent him with two serpents sprouting from his shoulders...point to a connection of some kind with ancient Mesopotamia."2 The question of the relationship between Sumerian culture and the Indus Valley is one of considerable dispute today. Still, the point if, for the moment, that Jainism represents an ancient current of religious theory and practices Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
SR No.524013
Book TitleJinamanjari 1996 04 No 13
Original Sutra AuthorN/A
AuthorJinamanjari
PublisherCanada Bramhi Jain Society Publication
Publication Year1996
Total Pages92
LanguageEnglish
ClassificationMagazine, Canada_Jinamanjari, & Canada
File Size6 MB
Copyright © Jain Education International. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy