Book Title: Jain Journal 1974 04 Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication Publisher: Jain Bhawan PublicationPage 21
________________ APRIL, 1974 159 Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism We have already mentioned that it has been generally believed, even by many scholars, that Jainism is a branch of Buddhism. Let us now examine the four points of coincidence which Professor Lassen adduced to prove this point.10 I. Both sects give the same titles and epithets to their prophets : e.g.,. Jina, Arhat, Mahavira, Sarvajna, Sugata, Tathagata, Siddha, Buddha, Sambuddha, Parnivrtta, Mukta. To this it has been well replied that probably all were 'honorific adjectives and substantives applicable to persons of exalted virtue'. For instance, even today in Jaina writings, 'Buddha' means 'mukta', or "liberated soul, and yet it was taken by the Buddhists as a title for Gautama. And to go further, Tirthakara, which means 'prophet' with the Jaina, is used of the founder of a heretical sect by the Buddhists. The more natural conclusion, therefore, to arrive at is that Buddhists were opponents of Jaina when they formed their terminology, and not vice versa. II. Both sects now worship mortal men (their prophets) as gods, and erect statues of them in their temples. But, we answer, this worship had nothing to do with Buddhism or Jainism originally, nor did it originate with the ‘yati' or monks, but with the 'sravaki' or laymen of the community. The religious development of the people in India had come to find in 'bhakti' the supreme means of salvation, and so Professor Jacobi thinks that both sects came to adopt this practice, independently, under the continuous and irresistible tendencies at work in those times. III. Both sects measure the history of the world by enormous periods of time, which bewilder and awe even the most imaginative fancy. But so does the Brahman ; in fact, there is as much difference between Buddhist and Jaina chronology as between Buddhist and Brahman. A study of the three system seems to show that while 'the Buddhists have improved on the Brahman system of the Yuga, the Jaina invented their Utsarpini and Avasarpini eras after the model of the day and night of Brahma'. In this case, therefore, the Jaina outdo the Buddhists. 10 Indische Alterthumskunde, iv. 763 ff. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
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