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RELIGIOUS SECTS
stature, and longevity. Two of them are red, two white, two blue, two black, the rest are of a golden hue, or a yellowish brown. The other two peculiarities are regulated with very systematic precision, and observe a series of decrement from Rishabha, the first Jinu, who was five hundred poles in stature, and lived 8,400,000 great years, to Mahóvira, the 24th, who had degenerated to the size of man, and was not more than forty years on earth. These peculiarities have been detailed by Mr. COLEBROOKE, in the ninth volume of the Researches, and he draws a probable inference from the return to reason in the stature and years of the two last Jinas, that they alone are to be considered as historical personages. The rest are the creatures of fiction. The notion of decreasing longevity, like that of the existence of human beings, superior to the gods, is common to the Bauddhas'.
There is also great similarity in the general tenor
A comparison of the Jain and Bauddha series suggests strong confirmation of the opinion that the Jain legends are only Bauddha notions exaggerated. The ages of the seven Buddhas run thus: Vipasyi, ............ 80,000 Years.
Sikhi, ............. 70,000 ditto. Visvabhú, ........... 60,000 ditto. Krakuchchhanda, ....... 40,000 ditto. Kanaka, ...........
.. 30,000 ditto. Káśyapa, ........... 20,000 ditto.
Sakya,............. 100 ditto. A. R. Vol. XVI, p. 453. The last Jina but one, or Pársvandth, lived, like Sakya, 100 years. [See also A. Weber, Ueber das Satrunjaya Máhátmyam. Leipzig: 1858, p. 3, and C. F. Koeppen, die Religion des Buddha, 1, p. 314 ff.]
