________________
beyond Satpura and Vindhya Ranges, even Nilgiris and beyond. Among these, Sri Padaliptasuri whose soles of feet always remained annointed with a sort of miracle-working paste (as the name itself suggests) lived during the period after Mahavira. No information is however available about how and from whom even the 1st Tirthankara Lord Rishabhanatha, who appears to have been revered as a Yogi, taught arts, sciences and agriculture to human society, gave society its structure and knowledge of self defence, taught his one daughter named Brahmi writing, grammar and mathematics and the other daughter Sundari fine arts and crafts, himself obtained this knowledge togetherwith the knowledge of Jaina principles which he propounded, explained and interpreted but did not found. Was it intuitional in the course of his deepest austerities and meditation? Who, then was the original Founder of Jaina Religion if not the 1st whose date is lost in oblivion or the last 23rd or 24th whose dates are now established as 9th and 6th century B. C. ?
Looking back to the recorded human history, nothing beyond 6,500 years is definitely known. That was the period when the dynasties of the Egyptian Pharohs started and almost a 1000 years later the famous pyramids began to be built. In India, excavations of Mohan-jo-daro, Harappa, and Lothal take us somewhere to this period establishing an existence of a civilization in the North-west of India running parallel to one by so-called Aryans in the Eastern parts of India. Recent publications on the subject conclusively show that Aryans were an integral part of India since times unknown and that they invaded India from somewhere outside India is a myth created mainly by the western scholars though well-meaning but ignorant. If anything, it may be the other way round viz that people from India, saints, scholars and artisans, Aryans or NonAryans may have spread themelves in areas outside India, even as far as Abyssinia, Egypt, Central and Middle-East Asia, in Europe to Greece, even Norway and Sweden and in South of India to Java, Sumatra and Malayesia. It appears more likely that there were two streams of religious thought, almost antithetic to each otber, Jainism and Vedanta, running parallel in India since unknown times one in the northeast, the other in the North-west and south of
8
