Jainthology

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 59

"Before the advent of Mahavira, the faith of which he was the last exponent seems to have been prevalent in Vaiśali and the surrounding country in some earlier form. It appears that the religion as fixed and established by Pārsvanatha was followed by some at least of the Ksatriya peoples of North-eastern India, specially amongst the residents of Vaišali. We learn from the Acārānga Sutra that Mahavira's parents were worshippers of Parsva and followers of the Śramaņas.''48-B. C. Law.
"The Jainas have been an organised community all through the history of India from before the rise of Buddhism."49-Rhys Davids.
"The Nirgranthas are never referred to by the Buddhists as being new sect, nor is their reputed founder Nataputta spoken of as their founder."50-E. W. Hopkins.
a
"One such great reformer Tirthankara Parśva, flourished in the 9th-8th century B. C....The early history of India is as much Jainistic as it is of those who profess the Vedas. For the present, the modern critics have accepted the historicity of Tirthankara Parsva."51-J. C. Vidyalankara.
"There can no longer be any doubt that Parsvanatha was a historical personage." "53-A. Guerinot,
"Thus admittedly, Jainism as a system of religious and ethical views and likewise as a community of Jainas was formed long before Mahavira Jina became the head of the community...23rd Tirthankara (Pārsvanatha or Pārsva) was born, lived and preached in Kāśi (Benaras)."'53 -Mrs. N. R. Guseva.
"Jaina creed had sprung into existence long before Gautama Buddha's time. Vardhamana Mahāvira was not its founder, but a reformer of what Parsva had taught, whom tradition credibly maintains to have lived 250 years before him."54-Walther Schubring.
48 'Vaisali, Mahavira's Birthplace', Jaina Antiquary, Vol X, part 1, p. 16.
49 Buddhist India (2nd ed., London, 1903), p. 318.
50 Religion of India, p. 283.
51
Bharatiya Itihas-ki Rup-rekha, Vol I, pp. 343-349.
52
Essai de Bibliographiea Jainica, Intro.
53
Jainism (translated from Russian into English by Y.S. Redkar), pp. 42, 44. The Doctrine of the Jainas (translated from German by Wolfgang Beurlen), p. 5.
54
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