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Jaina Tirthamkaras and antiquity of Jainism
make a mention of some other jinas also. The Bhāgavata Purana makes a mention of Sumati,438 the fifth Jaina tīrthamkara, and calls him the son of Bharata, 439 who was the son of Rsabha.440 The Bhāgavata Purāna adds that this Sumati will be “irreligiously worshipped by some infidels as a divinity'. 441 There is some similarity in the Brāhmanical and Jaina accounts of Sumati. 442 But it is also important to note that according to the Jaina texts, tīrthamkara Sumati was the son of Megha. 443
The names of Ajita, the second tirthamkara, and Supāráva, the seventh tīrthamkara, also seem to find mention in the Vedas.444 According to some scholars – K.P. Jain,445 Hira Lal Jain,446 Jyoti Prasad Jain,447 N.N. Basu,448 Fuhrer, 449 L.D. Barnett, 450 H.S. Bhattacharya 451 and P. Banerjee 452 - Neminātha or Aristanemi, the twenty-second tīrthařkara, was a historical person. P. Banerji writes,
Though nothing can be said definitely about the historicity of the early tirthamkaras, yet there can hardly be any doubt that
438. Bhagavata Purāņa, 5, 15; Visnu Purāna, op. cit., p. 246 and notes. 439. Ibid., 5, 15; Ibid., p. 246 and notes. 440. Visnu Purāņa, op. cit., pp. 245-6. 441. Ibid., p. 246 and notes; HJM, p. 39. 442. HJM, p. 39. 443. TSPC, II, pp. 277-81; JI, p. 58; JPV, p. 99. 444. JOLR, p. 29. 445. HJM, p. 59 fn 6. 446. HP, Editorial. 447. JOLR, p. 23. 448. Ibid., p. 20 fn 3. 449. Ibid. fn 4. 450. Ibid. fn 5. 451. Ibid., p. 21 fn 2. 452. P. Banerjee, Early Indian Religions, p. 147, cited in A.K. Mittal, Political and Cultural
History of India from Indus Valley Civilisation to 1206 AD, 1992, p. 155 fn 2.
