Jain Journal 1972 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 33

JANUARY, 1972
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historical facts which are not to be found in the Bhagavata literature, and that simply because there are certain discrepancies between the Hindu and Jaina accounts or because the latter puts too long an interval between Aristanemi and Parsva, the account of Aristanemi's life as given in Jaina books based on ancient Prakrit texts does not deserve to be ignored.13 Well-known Vedic scholars like Swami Virupaksha Vadiyar are convinced that the Vedic and Puranic allusions to Aristanemi refer to none else but the Jaina Tirthankara of that name.14 On the same basis, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan has observed, “There is no doubt that Jainism prevailed even before Vardhamana or Parsvanatha.”15 And, Dr. Fuhrer categorically asserts that, “Lord Neminatha, the 22nd Tirthankara of the Jainas has been accepted as a historical person," which view has been expressed by Prof. L. D. Barnett as well.17
A very old copper-plate grant, discovered by Prof. Pran Nath Vidyalankara from some place in Kathiawad, and published by him in the Times of India (Weekly), dated 19th March, 1935, purported, according to his decipherment, that “The King Nebuchadnazzar, who was also the lord of Rewanagar (in Kathiawad) and belonged to the Su (-mer) tribe, has come to the place (Dvaraka) of the Yaduraja. He has built a temple and paid homage and made the grant perpetual in favour of Lord Nemi, the paramount deity of Mt. Raivata.' The donor was identified with the Chaldean King Nebuchadnazzar of Babylonia, who is assigned to circa 1140 B.C.18 This record provides an additional proof in support of the fact that the 22nd Tirthankara had already become sanctified as a popular worshipful object in the post-Mahabharata period, centuries before the advent of not only Mahavira but also of Parsva, the penultimate Tirthankara. About a hundred years earlier than Prof. Vidyalankara, Col. James Tod had suggested that of the four distinguished wiseman of the ancient world the first was Adinatha (Rsabha, the first Tirthankara) and the second was Neminatha, the 22nd of the Jinas, whom he assigned to 1120 B.C., and whose influence, Tod believed, had extended into China and Scandinavia where he was worshipped under the names Fo and Odin, respectively.19
There may be any truth in such speculations or not, it is amply evident from the Jaina historical traditions relating to his times that
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Annals of the Bhandarkar Research Institute, Vol. XXIII, p. 122. Cf. Jain, J. P., op. cit., p. 22 ; Jain Path Pradarsak, III, 3, pp. 106-112. Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 287. Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I, p. 389; Vol. II, pp. 206-207. Ancient Mid-Indian Ksatriya Tribes, Vol. I, Foreward, p. iv. Cf. Jain, J. P., op. cit., p. 23. Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Vol. I, pp. 97-99.
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