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The Jaina Contribution to the History of
Ancient India
PREM CHAND JAIN
The Jaina community, with its unique cultural heritage has formed from the days of yore an important section of the Indian people, and has been drawing its adherents from all the various races, castes and classes inhabiting the different parts of this ancient country. Naturally, the Jainas have contributed a lot of material which may well be used as valuable sources of Indian history.
These Jaina sources are remarkable for their variety, vastness and chronological sequence. They are spread over the whole range of historical times and are connected with practically every part of the country and with almost every phase of its past history. At the same time they are no less authentic than the contemporary and similar Buddhist or Brahmanic sources.
From the times of the Mauryas onwards right upto the advent of the Muslims, and in some respects, even upto the end of the Muslim period, the Jaina material constitutes a good secondary source and its corroborative value cannot be exaggerated. In some cases as that of Rajasthan and several of the principal states of the Deccan and the South, histories of these regions could be reconstructed chiefly with the help of their respective Jaina sources. And for the pre-historic times, prior to the age of Mahavira and the Buddha, the Jaina traditions should have the same value and importance as the corresponding Brahmanic traditions. Their mutual agreements and differences, if comparatively studied and critically examined, may reveal many a hitherto unknown facts and may push back further the limits of historical times.
Moreover, the ancient Jainas seem to have had a love for dates and exactness which is evident from their numerous pontifical genealogies and dynastic chronologies, the dated colophons of their works and of their successive manuscript copies, the historical and even prehistorical traditions recorded with corresponding dates and periods in later works and from their inscriptional records which reach back to the 5th Century B.C.
It may be mentioned here that for the ancient period of Indian history, apart from archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics and foreigners'
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