Jain Journal 2001 07

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

Page 11

JAINISM, MAHĀVĪRA, BUDDHA AND NIRVĀŅA
Pror. N. M. KANSARA
Jainism is a very ancient religion, and its commencement has been traced at least to the age of the First Arhat or Tirthankara Rşabhadeva, who is recorded in the traditional mythological accounts to have been a son of King Nābhi and his queen Marudevi. Since then the tradition continued and in the course of time twenty-three other Arhats followed during different periods, and the last among them was Mahāvīra, who was known to have lived, reformed and preached it during the fifth century before Christ. In the period preceding the First Arhat, the Brāhmanical tradition of the Vedic religion was prevalent. On the contrary, the Buddhist religion is traced to Gautama Buddha who lived and preached in the fifth century BC, and was almost a contemporary of the last Arhat, Mahāvīra, of the Jainism.
Jainism is the Science of Salvation, propounded and practiced by Rsabhanātha, first (Ādinātha) of the twenty-four Master Pathfinders, known as Tirthankaras, through thousands of years. It was preserved by Pārsvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, and was systematized by Mahavira, the last Tirthankara.
The Jaina teaching was imparted at one time only orally. Mahāvira's chief direct disciples known as Ganadharas later on allegorized the teaching of the Science of Salvation as taught by the Tirthankaras. They tried their best to preserve the oral teaching of the Tirthankaras in their memory and passed it on to the generations. It was a liselong laborious pastime, which proved very fascinating; all communities and nations copied the early Jaina allegorists. The oldest compilation of allegories constitutes the Vedas as the sacred literature of the Hindus. The Jewish and the Christian sacred literature are also composed in allegorical style. At first allegory proved very attractive, but the masses insisted on misinterpreting the mythological conceptions, taking them to be real gods and goddesses. The misinformed masses managed to set up a theory of their own concerning their various religions; but they comprise mostly only perversions of the real doctrines of the Science of Salvation.!
1.
C.R. Jain, Jainism, Christianity and Science, The Indian Press, Ltd., Allahabad, 1930, pp. 3-4.