Jainism the Oldest Living Religion

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain, Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi

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The Oldest Living Religion
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Jacobi says a new sect could not have held such an important place in a division of
mankind. (v) The Buddha bad a dispute with Saccaka,
the non-Nirgrantha son of a Nirgrantha. father, which fact, according to Dr. Jacobi, proves decisively that the Jainas were not an
offshoot of Buddhism. (vi) In the Fuddhist Dhammapada (v. 422) there:
is a mention of Rsabha and Mahāvira, the: first and the last Jaina Tirtharkaras, respec
tively, (vii) The Buddhist scholar Aryadeva mentions.
Rşabhadeva as the original founder of
Jainism. 7. Then there is the evidence of the Jaina book's. themselves. Dr. Jacobi says, “There are no reasonable grounds to reject the recorded tradition of a numerous class of men as being a tissue of meaningless lies. All the events and incidents that relate to their antiquity are recorded so frequently and in such a matter of fact way that they cannot be properly rejected, unless under force of much stronger evidence than the one adduced by the scholars who are sceptic about the antiquity of Jainism.. In the Uttarādby'ayana Sūtra an interview between Gautama and Kesi, the followers of Lord Mahävira and. Pāiśva respectively, is held in a garden and after good. conversation carried on more or less in occult terms, the: two leaders recognise the fundamental unity of the doctrines and leave the garden fully convinced that they are workers. in the same field. This again points out to an older Jaina
1.
Šata śāstra' (5th century A.D.).