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( 27 ) Buddhist tradition there were thus 63, and according to the Jaip tradition 363 different sects or schools prevailing at that time. The most important of these teachers, or the so-called Tirthikas were Parapa Kassapa, Mankhali Gosala, Ajit Kesakambalin, Pakudha Kachchayana, Sanjaya Velatthiputta, Nigantha Natputta (Mahavira Jina) and Gautama Sakyaputta (the Buddha). Evidently they all belong to the Sramaņa fold and primarily aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of this system while incidentally they preached in a spirit of most copscentious and determined contradiction against the sanctity of Vedic lore, the sacrificial prescriptions of the ritualists, and the claims of spiritual superiority assorted by the Brahmanas. Most of these numerous schools, which sprang up or were prevailing about that time, however, cither died out or outlived their utility in the course of time. The two which proved strong enough to survive are Jainism and Buddhism and even today they profoundly influence the thought and faith of mankind.
Though in their inception and development both these religious systems, Jainism and Buddhism, are entirely distinct from and independent of each other, they exibit many common factors. Both of them derive from the Sramana culture system and represent the great Magadhan religion of ancient India. The culmination of the one and the rise of the other coincide in point of time (i.e, sixth century B.C.) Gautam Buddha, the founder of one of the most important religions of the world, and Vardhamana Mabavira, the last and greatest reformer of the Jain church, were both Ksatriya princes lived about the same time and belonged to the same region, their field of activity was also almost iodentical, and both preached in the common speech, the language of the masses, which was known as Ardhamagadbi and which in time developed into the Prakrita of the Jains and the Pali of the Buddhists. The doctrinal terminology used by them being also in many cases identical or similar, as well as certain practices like the rainy-season retreat, the 'long and short fasts" abstaining from eating after nightfall, etc. None of these religions accepts the authority of the Vedas, both deay the efficacy of rituals, denounce animal sacrifices performed
