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ed and is admitted by modern critical scholars. There is :: every possibility that some day in near future, we shall be in a position to prove the real historical existence of former 22 Jinas also, whose biographies and achievements are #ecorded in numerous ancient and medieval Jain texts, and are depicted in so many plastic productions of the land. For me however, the reality and existence of these so-called mythical Jinas is only as palpable and truthful as that of Mabăvira or Tathāgata, the greatest teachers of Sramanology. As I have pointed out elsewhere also, I strongly feel that a number of these Conquerers of Samsara with all its vices, seem to have been portrayed in the most ancieat plastic art of the Indian sub-continent. Not only the icons, but even the characteristic attitudes, attributes, and emblems of some Tirthankaras are distinguishable in the art and letters of those Pre-Āryan, Pre-Vedic and the most ancient inhabitants of Bharatavarşa whose archeological remains have been laid bare in Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan and GujratKathiawad. 8
1. For an account of 24 Jinas and other great men of Jain
tradition, see the Trişaşțiśalakåpuruşacharita, English transJation published in G.O.S. Nos. 51, 77, (and others), Baroda, 1931, 1937, etc. on Parsvanātha's life see Parsvanatha-charitra of Vadiraja, Hindi trans. by Sri Lal Jai Chandra Jain, Calcutta, 1922 ; Uttaradhyayanasūtra, 23, S.B.E. vol. xlv, Introduction, pxxi ff ; Uvāsagadasão, Eng. trans., A.F.R. Hoernle, Calcutta, 1890, p. 5, note ; Harmann Jacobi, "Jainism" in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by J. Hastings, vol. vii, pp. 466 ff. Dhammānanda Kosambi, Parsvanātha kā Caturyama
Dharma, Bombay, 1957 ; Hiralal Jain, op. cit. chapter 1. 2. L.M. Joshi, "The Greatest Factor In The Annihilation
of Buddhism In India”, contributed to 'Sramanology',
volume 1, Sri Ganganagar. 3. See e.& , H.D. Sankalia, Prehistory and Protohistory of
India and Pakistan, Bombay, 1963 ; A. Ghosh, Indian Archacology, New Delhi, 1960 ; R.E.M. Wheeler, Early India and Pakistan, London, 1959.
