Introduction to Jainism

Author(s): Rudi Jansma, Sneh Rani Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 49

HISTORY AND TĪRTHAMKARAS
least the Indian part of) the world who follow religion (in contrast to the mlecchas, who don't follow religion). In that sense an invasion of Aryans from the North would make no sense, and “Aryan” and “Dravid” (originally followers of the śramana (= Jain) tradition) would always have been coexisting concepts, and Aryans and Dravidians were both the original inhabitants of India.
From the 16" Tīrthamkara, Santināth, on, Jainism is said to have existed uninterruptedly. Before him the periods in between were so large that religion was forgotten and had to be re-inspired from the beginning. The 20'", Munisuvrata, lived in the days of the Hindu avatara Rāma, i.e. at the end of the tretā yuga, over 870,000 years ago according to Hindu calculations. In those days Brahmanism and Jainism approached each other, it is said. This of course would not harmonize with the idea that the Vedic Aryans only entered India after the 215 Tīrthamkara. The Hindus have their famous epic about Rāma, the Rāmāyana, but the Jains have a less-known version of the epic, which they claim is the original one, on the basis of which the author (Valmiki) built the famous Hindu epic.
The 21s' Tīrthamkara was Nami, and he is said to have influenced the writing of the Upanishads within the Vedic tradition. The 22nd Tīrthamkara was Nemi(nāth), as said. He was a cousin of Krishna, and thus lived just before the beginning of the kali yuga or dark age in which we live at present according to the Hindus, a little over 5100 years ago. It is said that Krishna had great respect for his cousin and his emphasis on non-violence, vegetarianism and opposition to animal sacrifice. Krishna once asked his cousin why he himself always failed to renounce the world as Nemi did. Nemi answered that this was not Krishna's task at that time – but that in the future, during the next upward half-cycle, he would be one of the Tīrthamkaras. Nemi is highly regarded in both Hindu and Jain scriptures.
The last but one Tīrthamkara of our downward halfcycle was Parśvanāth. He was born in 877 BC in Varanasi and