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RELIGIOUS SECTS
and as the legislator of the Bauddha nations in the east. The dates also assigned to both are not far removed; the apotheosis of the Buddha GAUTAMA Occurring five hundred and forty-three years before Christ, and the death of MahÁyira, the preceptor of the Jain GAUTAMA, about the same time. That there is some connexion may be conceded, but for reasons already assigned it is not likely that the persons are the same; the Jains have not improbably derived their GAUTAMA from that of their predecessors *.
No argument for the antiquity of the Jains is derivable from the account given of RISHABHA in the Bhúgavata Purána **. He was not a seceder from the true faith, although the mistaken imitation of his practices is said to have led others into errors, evidently intending tlie Jain heresy. He is scarcely identifiable, in consequence, with the Jain RISHABHA, the first of the Tirthankaras; but even if that were the case, no confidence could be placed in the authority, as the work is a modern compilation not exceeding, at the most, twelve centuries of antiquity. The refutation of Jain doctrines in the Brahma Sútras *** is a less questionable testimony of their early existence; but the date of that work is to be yet ascertained. SANKARA ACHÁRYA, the commentator on the texts of VYÁSA, affords a more definite approximation; but he
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* Weber, Ueber das Satrunjaya Mahátmyam, p. 2-6.] ** [V, 5, 28 ff. Vishúu Pur., p. 164, Note.] *** (II, 2, 6.]
