Jaina Law Bhadrabahu Samhita

Author(s): J L Jaini
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown

Page 30

INHERITANCE AND PARTITION.
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nâth must be about that time at the latest. Not insisting upon the Jaina tradition in its entirety at present (and it must be said in passing that there is nothing to discredit it as a matter of necessity), the 21 Tirthaukaras before Lord Nemináth must have covered at least a few millenniums; and, perhaps according to the claim advanced by Mr. B. G. Tilak in Our Arctic Home in the Vedas, the first Lord of the Jainas may be found in the then Arctics about 8000 to 10000 B.C.! Where did, then, the secession take place? Where and when the Jainas one morning rose up and dissented from the Hindus ? The fact is that the Rişabba of the Yajur Veda (see references in the Jaina Gazette, Vol. III, No.5 for August 1906) and of the Hindu Bhagvat (Skandha 2, Adhyâya 7) is, as is there admitted, the real founder of Jainism, and Jainism certainly has a longer history than is consistent with its being a creed of dissenters from Hinduism.
The inter-relation between Svetâmbaras and Digambaras is again needlessly misunderstood. It is said the former yatis follow Lord Parsvanath and the latter Lord Mahavira. Even a child, with the most superficial acquaintance with modern Jainas anywhere, would perceive the absurdity of this. The distinction is not between yatis or ascetics only. It is wider. All the Jainas-monks and laymenare either Digambara or Svetambára. And both