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Arbatas. In each half-cycle of many millions of years twenty-four Arhats are born. In the present half-cycle the last Arhat, Mahavira, was born in 598 B, C., in Kundagrawa, in the territory of Videha. He lived seventy-two yeays and attained Moksha ( liberation) in 526 B, C.
When European scholars first began to investigate the history of Jainism, they were struck with the similarities between its ethical code and institutions and those of Buddhism; hence they thought that Jainism must be a branch of Buddhism. But thanks to the labours of Jacobi, Buhler, and Leumann, it is now conclusively proved that Jainism is much older than Buddhism. At the advent of the Buddha the Jain sect had already attained a prominent position in the religious world of India.
We may now turn our attention to the contributions made by Jainism to Philosophy, In India, as elsewhere, Philosophy became possible when the struggles for existence were followed by its enjoyment, when the spirit of conquest gave way to a life of peace and industry. The early effusions of the Aryan people, when we find them on the march of conquest of the aboriginal races of India, are invocations of prosperity on themselves and their flocks: adoration of the dawn, celebration of the struggle between the god who wields the lightning and the power of darkness, and the rendering of thanks to
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