Aspect of Jainology Part 1 Lala Harjas Rai

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Shodhpith Varanasi

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Jain Tradition of Tirthankars
order. Nemi-natha preached religion for several years and finally attained Nirvana on the Mount Girnar, in Junagadha District of Gujrat State. As Nemi-natha renounced the world, he did not take part in the fraternal struggle of Mahabharata like his cousin brother Lord Krishna. Since this Great War of Mahabharata has to be assumed as an historical event and Krishna to be an historical personage, then his cousin brother Nemi-natha is also entitled to have a place in this historical picture. There is also an inscriptional evidence to prove the historicity of Neminatha. Dr. Pran Nath published in the "Times of India" (dated 19th March 1935) a copper plate grant of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnazzar I (1140 B. C.) found at Prabhaspattan in Gujrat State, which, according to his reading, refers to the Babylonian King having come to Mount Revat to pay homage to Lord Nemi-natha. Dr. Fuherer also declared on the basis of Mathura Jaina antiquities that Nemi-natha was an historical personage (vide Epigraphica Indica, I, 389 and II, 208-210). Further, we find Nemi-natha's images of the Indo-Scythian period bearing inscriptions mentioning his name. These and many other inscriptions corroborate the historicity of 22nd Tirthankara Nemi-natha,
21
Among the remaining 21 Tirthankaras of the Jaina tradition, there are several references from different sources to the first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha or Adinatha. Thus the tradition of twenty-four Tirthankaras is firmly established among the Jainas and what is really remarkable about this Jaina tradition is the confirmation of it from non-Jaina sources, especially Buddhist and Hindu sources,
Jaina Tradition and Buddhism :
As Mahavira was the senior contemporary of Gautama Buddha the founder of Buddhism, it is natural that in the Buddhist literature there are several references of a personal nature of Mahavira. But it is very significant to note that in Buddhist books Mahavira is always described as Nigantha Nataputta (Nirgrantha Jnatriputra, i.e. the naked ascetic of the Jnatri clan) and never as the founder of Jainism. Further in the Buddhist literature Jainism is not shown as a new religion but is referred to as an ancient religion. There are ample references in Buddhist books to Jaina naked ascetics, to worship of Arhats in Jaina Chaityas or temples and to the Chaturyama Dharma (i. e. fourfold religion) of 23rd Tirthankara Parshvanatha.