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OCTOBER, 1981
the teachings of the earlier Tirthankaras in a very forceful manner"14 and that "Mahavira himself grew up under the shadow of Parsva's religion".15 These show that a chain of continuity of thought came down to Mahavira (the last Tirthankara) from a very remote past. And it is an acknowledged fact that Jainism has changed very little even to day from the ancient times.
In view of the above, it seems that the root of Jainism goes back to the pre-Vedic days. As it is the custom of our country to find a particular idea about life and religion associated with the name of a particular person, so it is very reasonable to believe that the rudimentary ideas of Jainism were also originated with some person in the pre-Vedic days. There is much difficulty in assigning a date to the origin of the rudimentary ideas of Jainism, in view of the fact that many of the modern scholars believe that this religion originated from Parsvanatha. But I humbly attempt at this with my very limited knowledge.
Mahavira died on (according to the Jaina belief)
He lived for 72 years
Mahavira's date of birth
Parsvanatha attained enlightenment 250 years before Mahavira attained enlightenment at the age of 43 599 B.C. 43
So Parsvanatha lived in
Say roughly
Now, assuming that there was no time-gap between the earlier Tirthankaras and assuming further that each of such 22 Tirthankaras had a life span of 80 years,' ,16 we can presume that the rudimentary ideas of Jainism originated 80x22 years before Parsvanatha
Probable date about the origin of
the rudimentary ideas of Jainism.
*According to Sri J. P. Jain, it is 557 B.C.
See his Religion and Culture of the Jainas, p. 15. +After Dr. A. K. Chatterjee, See his A Comprehensive History of Jainism, p. 15.
Jain Education International
527 B.C. 72
599 B.C.
For Private & Personal Use Only
556 B.C. 250
67
806 B.C.
800 B.C.+
1760 years
2560 B.C.
14 Jain, J. P., Op. Cit., p. 13.
15 Chatterjee, A. K., Op. Cit., p. 20.
18 I have taken here the average life of the Tirthankaras to be of 80 years following the mantra in the Rgveda-pasyema saradah satam jivema saradah satam (Rk 7. 66.16) which shows that even in the Rgveda days men did not live for 100 years and longed for it.
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