________________
( )
predecessors who may possibly have had a real existence, we are, in our investigation, almost forced to adopt this point of view."-Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, page 153.
The late Dr. Vincent Smith in his "Early History of India," Oxford, 1914, page 29, says: “The Systems which we call Jainism and Buddhism hnd their roots in the forgotten speculations of the pre-- historic past, but, as we know them, were founded respectively by Vardhaman Mahavir and Gautam Buddha.” In his later work "The Oxford History of India,' 1919, page 50, the learned author, while making a reference to Parsavanath as Mahavira's predecessor, observes: “But we need not trouble about the obscure precursors of Jainism and Buddhism, who may be left to the research of antiquarians.”
Such instances can be multiplied from the standard work of European writers on Jainism. But we can also find some support from the writings of recognized Jain authors, like Jogindra Lal Jaini, M. A., Judge, Indore State and President of the All India Jian Association. We come across a passage in his 'Outlines of Jainism', 1916, page 28, which runs thus:
-"After fourteen yesrs of asceticism Mahavira felt that he had solved the riddle of human misery and was prepared to preach it to the world as Jainism."
