Historical Facts About Jainism

Author(s): Lala Lajpatrai
Publisher: Jain Associations of India Mumbai

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77
NOTI: No. 111). ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITTANICA.
Vol. XXIX.
THE TENTII 1DITION.
Page 0561-62. It is the sect of the Svetanıbaras which has preserved the oldest literatures. Prof. Jacobi has discussed in two papers the history of the schism between them and the Diganbaras, and several scholars--notably Bhagvanlal Indraji, Mr. Lewis Rice, and I lofrath Buliler in the articles mentioned below* have treated of the remarkable archeological discoveries lately made. These confirm the oller records in many details, and show tliat the Jains, in the centuries before the Christian era, were a wealthy and important body in widely separated parts of India. A further confirmation of the substantial accuracy of the existing Jain records has been found in the numerous references to Jains, and to points of Jain belief, in the recently published Buddhists Nikayas. These are older than the oldest of the Jain books. But the details they give show that the latter have not altered very much from the
*The Hathi Gumpha inditree other inscriptions at ('nttack, Leyden, 1885); Sravana Belgola inscriptions, Banga lore 1889; Vienna Oriental Journal, Vols. ii-v: Epigraphia indica vols. i-iv.