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THE JAINA GAZETTE "The parents of Mahavira were followers of the religion of Parshva........................... The age we live in there have appeared twenty-four prophets of Jainism. They are ordinarily called Tirthankaras. With the 23rd Parshvanatha we enter into the region of history and reality."
From this we are convinced of the antiquity of Jainism. Mahavira is the last Tirthankara of this age, and had taken birth at a time when everything was in disorder, and his presence was badly required. According to Mr. Datta the conditions of those times are summed up in the following words :
"Religion in its true form had been replaced by forms. Excellent social and moral rules were disfigured by the unhealthy distinctions of caste, by exclusive privileges for Brahmins, and by cruel laws for Sudras........................... Thus society was held in a cast iron mould which it had long outgrown, and the social, religious and legal literature of the day still proclaimed and upheld the cruel injustice against the Sudras, long after the Sudra had become civilized and industrious, and a worthy member of society."
At such a period of our history Mahavira put before the world His deep and broad principles of Ahimsa, and brought about an unsurpassed revival in the current filthy atmosphere. About Mahavira's message to the world Dr. Rabindranath Tagore says as follows :
“Mahavira proclaimed in India the message of salvation that religion is a reality, and not a mere social convention, that salvation comes from taking refuge in that true religion, and not from observing the external ceremonies of the community—that religion cannot regard any barrier between man and man as an external verity. Wondrous to relate, this teaching rapidly overtopped the barriers of the race's abiding instinct and conquered the whole country. For a long period now the influence of Kshatriya teachers completely suppressed the Brahmin power."
Thus we see from most reliable sources that about the antiquity of Jainism, there is absolutely no doubt at present, and that Mahavira the twenty-fourth Jina has with His great message
of Ahimsa given to the present world something on which a Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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