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Their Prominent Features in India and Abroad : 229 already existed in India during the “Indus Valley Civilisation” and perhaps even before. So, it is difficult to confirm with certainty what was the actual influence of the Jains many centuries before our era. It is easier since Pārsva and Mahāvīra.
In the first part of this chapter, we will see the influence of Jains in India since these two last Tīrtharkara. The second part will be devoted to their impact in various other countries in the world. Such overview will touch different levels: philosophical and religious, social and political, scientific and economic, literary, artistical and architectural
1. Their influence in India
Since long, Indians have shared numerous common customs, practices, ways of living and thinking they inherited from traditions whose origins are not well defined. Jains like to say that other religions have included or adopted concepts from their culture, so appeared a great confusion and a long misunderstanding on the matter, in the Western world.
What is sure it is that the influence of the Jains has been great in India since the prehistoric era and must not be neglected? They have been very active in their motherland since a long period of time, even though their traces on archaeological level are not very numerous. The great scholar A. N. Upadhye has written in his book “A Cultural History of India", published by Oxford University Press in 1975, that "their heritage is much more important than their present numerical weakness might lead to believe. They have had a deep impact on the people who lived in the area before the Aryan invasion. Their example and their tenets had incontestable effects on the later occupants of the country”.
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