Book Title: Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline
Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
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PART TWO
THE INCIPIENT STAGE
The Prehistory of Jainism
The
The Jains believe that theirs is the oldest religion, the ideas and practices of which were developed in the hands of twenty-four Tirthamkaras who are known by the following names:-Rṣabhadeva or Adinatha, Ajitanatha, Sambhavanatha, Abhinandana, Sumatinātha, Padmaprabha, Suparśvanatha, Candraprabha, Suvidhinatha, Śītalanatha, Śreyāmśanatha, Vasupujya, Vimalanatha, Anantanatha, Dharmanatha, Santinatha, Kunthunatha, Aranatha, Mallinatha, Munisubrata, Naminatha, Neminatha or Ariṣṭanemi, Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra. According to the Jain belief, it was Rṣabhadeva, the first Tirthamkara, who taught men seventy-two arts and women sixty-four, and also initiated them into the Jain way of life. His example was followed by other Tīrthamkaras. In the hands of the last two Tirthamkaras, Pārsva and Mahāvīra, the traditional knowledge derived from their spiritual ancestors assumed new form and colour. None of them claimed to be the founder of any system. They were great reformers who modified the essentials of the existing religion evidently to meet the demand of their ages.
This tradition of twenty-four Tirthamkaras must have a historical basis. A section of the modern scholars doubts about the historicity of the earlier Tirthamkaras. The fantastic exaggeration by which the earlier Tīrthamkaras were characterised in Jain literature must have contributed to the growth of such suspicion. But to characterise them simply as mythical involves the risk of an oversimplified approach towards the problem. There is no reason to disbelieve in the historical probability of the existence of a 'succession of teachers.' Rather, from a critical study of the growth of Indian religio-philosophical ideas, we can come to the definite conclusions that outside the pale of Vedic culture and religion, especially in Eastern India, the pre-Vedic and non-Vedic ideas had a vigorous survival, that there were persons (among whom the earlier Tīrthamkaras and the predecessors of the Buddha might have belonged), and
