Jain Journal 1974 04

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

Page 47

APRIL, 1974
185
the doctrine, he is the Tirthakara "the finder of the ford”, through the ocean of the Samsāra. In these epithets, applied to the founder of their docrine, the Jainas agree almost entirely with the Buddhists, as the likeness of his character to that of Buddha would lead us to expect. They prefer, however, to use the names Jina and Arhat, while the Buddhists prefer to speak of Buddha as Tathagata or Sugata. The title Tirthakara is peculiar to the Jainas. Among the Buddhists it is a designation for false teachers. 6
The Jaina says further, however, that there was more than one Jina. Four and twenty have, at long intervals, appeared and have again and again restored to their original purity the doctrines darkened by evil influences. They all spring from noble, warlike tribes. Only in such, not among the low Brahmana can a Jina see the light of the world. The first Jina Rsabha,-more than 100 billion oceans of years ago,-periods of unimaginable length, was born as the son of a king of Ayodhya and lived eight million four hundred thousand years. The intervals between his successors and the durations of their lives became shorter and shorter. Between the twenty third, Parsva and the twenty fourth Vardhamana, were only 250 years, and the age of the latter is given as only seventy-two years. He appeared, according to some, in the last half of the sixth century, according to others in the first half of the fifth century B.C. He is of course the true, historical prophet of the Jainas and it is his doctrine, that the Jainas should believe. The dating back of the origin of the Jaina religion again, agrees with the pretensions of the Buddhists, who recognise twenty-five Buddhas who taught the same system one after the other. Even with Brahmanism, it seems to
The titles Siddha, Buddha and Mukta are certainly borrowed by both sects from the terminology of the Brahmans, which they used, even in older times, to describe those saved during their lifetime (jivanmukta). The surnames Vira or Mahavira and Arhat are probably derived from the same source. For Vira is used in the Saivite doctrine to describe a consecrated one who is on the way to redemption. An Arhat, among the Brahmans, is a man distinguished for his knowledge and pious life (comp. for example Apastamba, Dharmasutra. I, 13, 13; II, 10, 1.) and this idea is so near to that of the Buddhist and the Jainas that it may well be looked upon as the foundation of the latter. The meaning of Tirthakara "prophet, founder of religion", is derived from the Brahmanic use of tirtha in the sense of "doctrine". Comp. also H. Jacobi's Article on the
Title of Buddha and Jina, Sac. Books of the East., Vol. XXII, pp. xix-xx. ? A Sagara or Sagaropama of years is, 100,000,000,000,000 Palya or Palyopama.
A Palya, is a period in which a well of one or, according to some, a hundred yojana, i.e., of one or a hundred geographical square miles, stuffed full of fine hairs, can be emptied, if one hair is pulled out every hundred years; Wilson, Select Works, Vol. I, p. 309; Colebrooke, Essays, Vol. II, p. 194, ed. Cowell.