Tulsi Prajna 1991 07

SR No.: 524567
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1991
Total Pages: 96
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 5 MB

Page 81

JAINISM & BUDDHISM
Dr. N. K. Dash
[This is in continuation to Jainism : An old Independent Religion (Pages 3 to 8). The writer says that Jainism is not a division of Buddhism. The former was existing long before Buddhism was founded by Lord Buddha. It is hoped that the topic will be discussed and the antiquity of Jainism will be established. -Editor]
M. Winternitz, the famous Austrian Scholar, suggests that "the religion of the Jainas, Jainism, has so much in common with Buddhism that, for a long time, it was considered merely as a Buddhist Sect (History of Indian Literature, Vol II, p. 408). Moreover, W.S. Lilly in his treatise entitled 'India and its Problems (p. 144) opines that “Buddhism survives in the land of its birth in the form of Jainism. What is certain is that Jainism came into notice when Buddhism had disappeared from India”. Again, Wilson remarks that from all credible testimony, therefore, it is impossible to avoid the inference that the Jainas are a sect of comparatively recent institution, who first came into power and patronage about the eighth and nineth century: they probably existed before that date as a division of the Buddhas, and owed their elevation to the suppression of that form of faith to which they contributed (vide, C.J. Shah, Jainism in North India, p. xviii).
We do not agree with the statement of various scholars stated above. Because, Buddhism was founded by Lord Gautama Buddha during the 2nd half of the 6th century B.C. (Iconographic Dictionary of the Indian Religion. Costa Liebent, Delhi, 1986, p. 49) and Jainism was founded much earlier than this period i.e. during 3000 B.C. On the other hand, it is a settled fact that Pārsva, the twentythird Tirtharkara of the Jainas, is historical person, and Mahāvīra, like any other Jina, enjoyed no better position than that of a reformer in the galaxy of the Tirtharkaras of the Jainas. (Elbahms-Hemachandra's Abhidhāna Chintamani v. 26.27.28). The Jains as Niganthas
According to Jaina Scriptures Jaina Monks and Nuns were known niganshas and niganthis-(Sanskrit nirgranthas)-etymologically meaning without any ties. This is also apparently corroborated by the Buddhist canon ; Varāhamihira and Hemachandra call them nirgranthas, whereas