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જૈન કોન્ફરન્સ હેર
[722*042 Now here the learned author writes in very misleading terms although as we have pointed out above Maha-Vira is not by any means the founder of the Jain religion yet here he is so described -and later on, it is said, merely as a passing remark, thet some scholars and the Jains themselves say that Jainism is a very old religion, as, if that were not the truth. It appears that Mr. Marsden has taken his statement from the article “ Jains ” in Vol 13 of the Encyclopædia Britannica, page 543, and yet what is important to prove antiquaty of Jainism in that article is omitted by Mr. Marsden. Proffessor P. M. Rhys Davids from whose pen the article comes says as follow:
Jainism purports to be the system of belief promulgated by Vardhamana, better known by his epithet of Maha-Vira who was a · contemporary of Gautama, thc Budha. But the Jains, like the Budh
ists, believe that the same system had previously been proclaimed through countless sages by each one of a succession of earlier teachers. The Jains count twenty four such prophets, whom they call Jinas or Tirthankaras, that is conquerors or leaders of schools of thought. It is from the word Jina that the modern name Jainas meaning followers of the Jina or of the Jainas is derived. This legend of the twenty four Jinas contains a germ of truth. Maha-Vira was not an originator, he merely carried on without slight changes a systemi which existed before his time and which probably owes its most distinguished features to a teacher named Parshvanath, who ranks in the succession of Jainas as the predecessor of Maha-Vira. Parshvanath is said, in the Jain chronology to have lived two hundred years before Maha-Vira (that is about 700 B. C. but the only conclusion that is safe to draw from this statement is, Parshva was considerably carlier in point of time than Maha-Vira".
As regards the origin of Jainism, we also beg to draw your attention to the introduction of Utaradhyayana and Sutrakritanga Jain Sutras in Sacred Books of the East vol: xlv by Professor Hermann Jacobi.
So such as regards the error in assigving a date to the origin of Jainism.
There are other errors and inaccuracies in the sixtieth lesson of the said Gujarati fifth book and in Marsdens' History which are
