Jaina Law Bhadrabahu Samhita

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

Page 31

14
THE JAINA LAW
follow Lord Pârsvanath and Lord Mahavira. Both derive their common creed-98 per cent. of the doctrine is identical in the two sects---from Lord Mahậvira. The distinction is due to a few minor differences in the mode of worship, in images, etc.
Jainism originated in the N.-W. Provinces ! This is a very misleading half-truth. It casts doubt on the historicity of Lord Malāvīra, who admittedly flourished and attained liberation in Bihār. The truth is that Jainism did originate, in this cycle of time, under Lord Rişabla or Adinath, who lived and taught people the arts of defending themselves against wild beasts, and of agriculture, etc., untold years ago, in Ajodhyâ, in what was the "N.-W. Prorinces" in 1891 and is now the "United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.” But Jainism in its modern form takes its rise in the life and teachings of Lord Mabāvīra, who was the last of the Tīrthankaras and who was born at Vaisāli in 599 B. O., and attained Nirvāna at Pavāpuri in 527 B. C.
The doctrine of a Hindu origin for Jainism and the Jainas is thus with no historical support whatsoever. Hasty assumptions in the teeth of all the sacred and secular traditions of the Jainas account for this accumulated error. Yet it is not without a struggle that the doctrine established itself in courts
*84 of these differences are given in the Jaina Gazette. Volume IX, Nos. 0 to 9 for June to September, 1918.