Historical Facts About Jainism

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

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the assertion that the resemblance of the historical statements of the Jains to those of the Buddhas and the agreement of their doctrines and customs are so close tliat they warrant the suspicion of a mutual interdependence.
He shows that the account of the life of Vardhamana differs in very important and 1111merous details from that of Sakyamuni Gautama and that such resemblances, as are found, may be expected to occur in the lives of any two men, who were contemporaries and caste-fellows, and both became ascetics and teachers of religious systems. He further points out a number of very considerable differences between the doctrines and customs of the Jains and of the Buddhas and proves with the help of the ancient Dharmasutras, that their resemblances are inore easily explained by the theory that both sects borrowed from the Brahainans than by the assumptiou that the Jains innitated the Buddhas. In answering Mr. BARTH's strictures on the Jaina tradition he admits that the Jain sect may have been for a long time small and unimportant, but contends that small sects, like the Jews and Parsis, often do preserve their doctrine and traditions with great pertinacity and better than large religious communities. He adds that the trifling differences in doctrines or usages, which caused the various schisnis in the Jaina church, indicate that the latter was inost particular about its tenets, and that the detailed list