________________
m.
Vol. I.
No. 11
THE
JAINA ANTIQUARY.
"श्रीमत्परमगम्भोरस्था द्वादामोघलाञ्छनम् ।
जीयात त्रैलोक्यनाथस्य शासनं जिनशासनम् ॥”
ARRAH, (INDIA)
September,
1935.
WHO WAS THE FOUNDER OF JAINISM?
(By Kamta Prasad Jain, M.R.A.S.)
A right answer of the question, given above as title, is yet to be searched and worked out; since the theory given as an established fact in the Text Books of Indian History of our schools and colleges, besides the general books on the subject, is that most probably the founder of Jainism was Parsvanatha, whom the Jainas regard as their 23rd Tirthankara1. This proposition is far from the truth. There was a time when European scholars regarded Jainism to be a religion of medieval advent, and then others came forward to call it an off-shoot of Buddhism2. But
1. "Most probably Parsva, the 23rd Tirthankara was the founder of Jainism." -Encyclo of Religion and Ethics, vol. VII p. 465.
"Parsva.......was indeed the Royal founder of Jainism." -Harmsworth's History of the world, II, p. 1198. Oxford Students History of India, p. 43; Early History of India, p. 31; Cambridge History of India, vol. I pp. 153 154, etc., etc.
2. Elphinstone, History of India, p. 27 and 122. Barth, Wilson, etc., quoted in the
"Jaina Itihasa Series, No. I."-p. 6.
