Historical Facts About Jainism

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

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Sir A. CUNNINGHAM'S Archaeological Reports, vol. III., plates XIII-XV. They not only mention the division of the Jaina monks into schools, lines of teachers and branches, but contain the names of nine Ganas, kulas and sakhas and of one teacher, mentioned in the Kalpasutra. These inscriptions are dated according to the era of the Indoscythian kings Kanishka, Huvishika and Vasudeva, whose names are mentioned in some of them. Though the beginning of this era has not yet been accurately fixed, it may be safely asserted that the rule of tliese Indoscythians over North-Western India cannot be placed later than in the end of the first and the first three quarters of the second century A.D. One of the latest dates which has been assigned for Kanishkas' accession to the throne is the year 78-79 A.D.(2).
Though I am by no means satisfied, that it falls so late, I here follow the opinion of Messrs. FERGUSSON, OLDENBERG, KERN, and others who consider Kanishka to be the founder of the Saka era, lest I may he accused of antedating these. important inscriptions. The dialect in which they are written, shows that curious mixture of Sanskrit and Prakrit, which is found in the Gathas of the Northern Buddhists, and which, as Dr. HOERNLE has been the first to recognise, 2. Sir A. Cunningham, who in his book of Indian
eras. 41 refers the dates of Kanishka and the rest to the fifth century of the Seleucidan era. places each of the inscriptions ten years later than I do,