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Jainism and Other Religions :: 139
between Jainism and Hinduism. It is also pertinent to note that these differences are persisting even up to the present day.
2. Jainism and Buddhism
Regarding the relation between Jainism and Buddhism, the opinion of early European scholars was divided. While one group consisting of E. Thomas, Stevenson, Colebrook and others thought that Jainism is older than Buddhism, yet the other group of orientalists like H.H. Wilson, Lassen and others hold that Jainism was an off-shoot of Buddhism because outwardly certain points were common to both and their land of origin and early activities was the same. This question whether Jainism was a precurser to Buddhism or not was settled for good in a scholarly manner by the researches of two great German orientalists, namely, Jacobi and Buhler. It is now an established fact that Jainism is not a branch of Buddhism but is an independent religion and that it was flourishing when Lord Gautama Buddha founded his new religion.
There are many similarities between Jainism and Buddhism. Both are Indian religions in every sense of the term and both are representatives of Sramana culture in India; while Hinduism is the representative of Brāhmaṇa culture in India. As such both Jainism and Buddhism:
(i) do not regard Vedas of the Hindus as authoritative
and binding; (ii) do not accept the permanent power of God as the
creator of the world; (iii) do strongly oppose the violent or animal sacrifices; (iv) do assign prominent place of sādhus and sādhvis, i.e.,
religious ascetic organisations. Further, both Tīrthankara Mahāvīra and Lord Gautama Buddha hailed from Magadha, i.e., modern Bihar, were contemporaries and had many common points in their
lives and activities. In spite of these similarities, we do find that there are
